ALLEN: mammalia: mustelid^. 143 



in detail the information above summarized by Dr. Merriam, and adds, on 

 the authority of Mr. A. W. Anthony, a well known naturalist, that 36 fur- 

 seals were taken at Guadalupe in 1893, and 15 in 1894. He gives also 

 statistics for the years 1876 to 1894, and adds: "This incomplete record 

 accounts for 5,557 fur-seals killed at Guadalupe between 1876 and 1894." 



Family MUSTELID^. 



This family, so far as known, is represented in Patagonia by only three 

 genera, a Skunk [Conepatits himiboldti), the Weasel-like Lyncodon pata- 

 goiiicus, and two species of Otter [Ltitra). Two other species, the Tayra 

 {Tayra barbara, or a form of it), and the Grison or Huron [Galictis 

 vittatd) nearly reach our borders, the former occurring, according to Bur- 

 meister, as far south as the Grand Chaco in Argentina, and sparingly in 

 Paraguay, and the latter as far south as the northern part of Patagonia. 

 The true Weasels (genus Pittorius) occur in northern South America, 

 and as far south as Peru in the Andes, but are absent from the more south- 

 eastern parts of the continent. 



Genus CONEPATUS Gray. 



Conepatiis Gray, Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. Hist., I, Nov. 1837, 5^1- Type, 



and only species, Coiiepatus Jiumboldti Qx2iy, sp. nov. — Howell, N. 



Amer. Fauna, No. 20, 1901, 20 (footnote). — Thomas, Ann. & Mag. 



Nat. Hist. (7), VIII, Dec. 1901, 528 (in text). 

 TJiiosmus Lichtenstein, Abhandl. Akad. Wissen. Berlin, 1836 (1838). 



phys. Kl., 270. No type = Conepatits + Marputiiis Gray, 1837. 

 The genus Conepatiis, taken in the broad sense for the bare-nosed 

 skunks in general, ranges from the southern border of the United 

 States southward to the Straits of Magellan. The group proves, how- 

 ever, divisible into three subgenera — Conepatiis (s. s.), Marpittins Gray,' 

 and Oryctogale Merriam.- The latter includes most of the bare-nosed 

 skunks of the United States and Mexico ; Marputius includes certain Mex- 



' Type, Miphilis chilensis (= " Mephitis chilensis Geoff. Inhabits Chili. Brit. Museum." 

 According to Thomas (Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. (7), VIII, Dec. 1901, 528), the "type was what 

 Gray called ' Mephilis chilensis Geoff.' ; but his specimen (B. M. 68«) proves to be not the Chilian 

 Skunk (^Conepatiis chinga, Mol.), but the Brazilian one and the actual type of Lichtenstein's Me- 

 phitis amazonica." 



'Type, Conepatiis leuconotiis (Licht.) from Vera Cruz, Mexico. Cf. Merriam, Proc. Biol. Soc. 

 Washington, XV, p. 161, Aug. 6, 1902. 



