33 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XIV, 



et dans quelques autres endroits des Indes espagnoles." The! 

 description and figure indicate beyond question a species of 

 Spilogale, but the locality is, of course, not Peru, but probably 

 Mexico. G. Cuvier wrongly claimed 1 that Buffon's plate repre- 

 sents "un animal du Cap de Bonne-Esperance, que Buffon a 

 mal-a-propos considere comme propre a I'Amerique " ; and this 

 is doubtless why he in his 'Tableau elementaire de 1'Histoire 

 naturelle des Animaux ' (p. 116), published three years before 

 the date of this note, placed the "Viverra zorilla Lin." (= Gmelin) 

 in his group ' b, Martes,' instead of with the Mouffettes, thus 

 formally excluding the only then known species of Spilogale from 

 his group c, ' les Mouffettes, 1 which two years later became his 

 genus Mephitis. 



The next species of Spilogale to be made known, and the first 

 definite and distinct mention of any form of Spilogale under 

 Mephitis, is the Mephitis inter rupta Rafinesque, described in 1820. 



THE Viverra mephitis SCHREBER. 



As Mr. Howell has adopted the specific name mephitis for the 

 Canada Skunk, in the belief that Schreber's Viverra mephitis 

 relates to this form, it seems desirable to consider its character. 



Viverra mephitis of Schreber (Saug., Ill, 1776, p. 444, pi. cxxi) 

 was based primarily and almost exclusively on the animal de- 

 scribed and figured by Buffon and Daubenton as ' le chinche ' 

 (Buffon, Hist. Nat., XIII, pp. 294, 300, pll. xxxix). That the basis 

 of Viverra mephitis Schreber is Buffon's ' le chinche ' is shown : 



(1) By Schreber's description, which is a slightly abridged 

 paraphrase of Daubenton's description of that animal (Buffon, 

 /. c., p. 300), and it is duly accredited to Daubenton by Schreber. 



(2) Schreber's plate is an avowed copy of Buffon's (see list of 

 plates, p. 588 of Vol. Ill of Schreber's Saug.). 



(3) The vernacular name employed is "der Chinche," showing 

 further the particular animal he had in view. 



Schreber cites three previous authors, namely, Linnaeus, Buffon, 

 and Pennant. He cites Linnaeus as follows : 



" Viverra mephitis. LINN. syst. nat. ed. 10. p. 44. n. 2. Die Beschreibung 

 gehort hieher, nicht aber die Namen." 



1 Azara's Essais sur 1'hist. Nat. des Quadr. de la Prov. du Paraguay, I, 1801, pp. 238, 239 

 (note on Azara's account of his Yagouare). 



