226 Bulletin American Museum of Natural History. [Vol. XXII, 



from entire absence (in two specimens) to, in the average, about an 

 inch in extent, varying to an inch and a half to two inches in extreme 

 cases, with also in a few specimens a few short black hairs mixed 

 with the white on the sides and lower surface of the basal third of 

 the tail, generally quite inconspicuous. 



"Probably the most common Mexican species of skunk. Most 

 abundant on uplan$ llanos at about three to five thousand feet alti- 

 tude. Nocturnal, though on one occasion seven were observed in a 

 band, traveling over a mountain shaded by heavy timber at midday. 

 During the dry season they become more common near the coast, 

 having migrated from the higher country eastward where food had 

 become scarce. Food consists of insects, especially crickets, the para- 

 sites of which infest the bodies of the skunks by hundreds. Some 

 individuals taken had their intestines, stomachs, and bodies so badly 

 perforated that they were nearly dead from the effect. Breeds ir- 

 regularly, probably according to age. Female has from three to 

 six young." -J. H. Batty. 



28. Procyon hernandezii Wagler. 



Procyon lotor, varicte mexicaine I. GEOFFR. ST. HILAIRE, Zool. Voy. de la 

 Venus, V, Pt. I, 1855, 125, atlas, pi. vi. Mazatlan, Mexico. 



Procyon hernandezii var. mexicana BAIRD, Mam. N. Amer., 1857, 215 (at 

 least in part) ; U. S. and Mex. Bound. Surv., Zool., Mamm., 1859, 22. 



Forty-six specimens, Escuinapa and vicinity, Jan. 6-28, Feb. 17 

 28, April 619, June 8, 30. 



The series includes a few old adults with worn teeth, and there 

 are a few quite young specimens, but the larger part consists of young 

 adult and middle-aged animals. The external measurements of a 

 good series of adults are as follows: 



Collector's measurements: ip adult males, total length, 828 (775 

 889); head and body, 530 (483-559); tail vertebra, 298- (279-330) ; hind 

 foot without claws, 120 (114-127); ear from notch, 58.5 (57-64). Only 

 2 fall below 800 mm. in total length, only i below 500 in length of head 

 and body, and only i below 290 in length of tail vertebrae. These are 

 in each case rather young adults. Females, 10 adults, total length, 

 812 (762-869); head and body, 522 (470-546); tail vertebras, 290 

 ( 2 73-3 2 3); hind foot, 114 (108-127); ear > 57-5 (51-64)- 



Skull. The principal skull measurements of the same specimens 

 and a few others are: males, total length, 117 (114-124, and i at 132) ; 

 basal length, 104 (98-114); .zygomatic breadth, 73.3 (64-83, only i 

 above 79); mastoid breadth, 60.4 (54.5-68); upper molar series, 



