

1901.] Allen, Generic Names of the Mephitina. 3 2 9 



South America, and " Mephitis Cuv. s. sir!' (I. c., p. 276), for 

 the North American skunks collectively, including the forms 

 later separated by Gray as Spilogale. Lich ten stem's Thiosmus is 

 thus the equivalent of Gray's Conepatus and Marputius combined, 

 both of which terms he rejects on account of their being such 

 barbarous distortions (" solch barbarische Verzerrungen "). His 

 restricted subgenus Mephitis, more explicitly than Gray's restricted 

 genus Mephitis, covers all the then known North American skunks 

 not referable to the previously established genus Conepatus. The 

 later removal by Gray in 1865 of the little striped skunks to form 

 the genus Spilogale was therefore a perfectly proper and tenable 

 proceeding, while Lesson's attempt to establish a genus Chincha 

 in place of the previously properly restricted Mephitis was wholly 

 unjustifiable and ineffective. Although Lesson had Lichtenstein's 

 able exposition of the skunks for a guide, he could hardly have 

 made a worse jumble of the group, as regards either the * sub- 

 genera,' species, or nomenclature. 



Lesson's restricted ' sous-genre ' Mephitis, consisting of three 

 species, includes one each of the present genera Conepatus, 

 Mephitis, and Spilogale, in the order named, his first being a pure 

 synonym of his first species of Thiosmus ; his second, if it can be 

 identified at all, is Buffon's Conepate, and hence, as already ex- 

 plained, is the form of Mephitis occurring in Pennsylvania and 

 New Jersey ; while the third is Rafinesque's Mephitis interrupta, 

 and hence a Spilogale. 



THE GENUS Spilogale GRAY. 



As Lesson's action in proposing Chincha, and his consequent 

 transference of Mephitis to a group which by chance included a 

 species of Spilogale, is void, the erection of the genus Spilogale 

 by Gray in 1865 was, as already said, a perfectly legitimate pro- 

 ceeding. 



In this connection it is interesting to trace the history of the 

 first recognizable species of Spilogale. This proves to be the 

 Viverra zorilla Schreber (Sa'ug., Ill, 1776, p. 445, pi. cxxiii), 

 based primarily on Me zorille ' of Buffon (Hist. Nat., XIII, pp. 

 289, 295, pi. xli), the description being from Daubenton (Buffon, 

 /. c., p. 302), and the plate an accredited copy of Buffon's. Buf- 

 fon tells us he gave it the name zorille, " qu'elle porte au Perou 



