1865.] DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE MUSTELIDZ. 145 
Tribe 6. Mepuirina. Tubercular grinder oblong, quadrangular. 
Palate scarcely produced behind; nearly on a line level with 
the hinder end of the tooth-line. Fur black, white-streaked. 
Skull short. 
The flesh-tooth in the three genera which Lichtenstein and most 
compilers have kept together under the name of Mephitis differs 
very considerably. In Mephitis and Conepatus it is short and broad; 
in Mephitis the inner lobe has a conical tubercle, and in Conepatus 
it has a long, marginal, semilunar one. In Zorilla the flesh-tooth is 
elongate, slender, much longer than broad, and it has a conical tu- 
bercle on its subcentral small inner lobe. The tubercular grinder in 
the two first genera is broad, massive, and square; in Zoriila it is 
oblong and transverse. 
23. CONEPATUS. 
Head conical; nose produced, hairy, and without any central 
groove beneath ; muzzle produced, bald above, obliquely truncated 
beneath ; nostrils inferior; ears orbicular, scarcely visible. The 
hind feet large, broad; the soles naked, half the length of the foot, 
oblong, broad, rugose and warty, rounded behind, divided into two 
convex parts by a cross groove, scarcely subdivided into smaller pads ; 
front claws very long. Tail short, bushy, subcylindrical. Teeth as 
in Mephitis. Teeth 32; false grinders 2/3, 2/3; but flesh-tooth 
with long, marginal, semilunar tubercle. 
Conepatus, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837; Cat. Mamm. B. M. xxi. 
69; Baird, Mamm. N. A. 192. 
Marputius, Gray, Mag. Nat. Hist. 1837, i. 
Thiosmus, Licht. Abhand. Akad. Berl. fiir 1836, p. 214, 1838 (real 
date); Baird, Mamm. N.A. 191. 
Lycodon, D’ Orbigny. 
zolictus, Gloger, 1842. 
It has been supposed that Lichtenstein has the priority for the 
subgenus T’hiosmus, because the paper appears nominally in the 
‘ Transactions’ for 1836, and my paper in the ‘ Mag. Nat. Hist.’ 
1837; but there cannot be a doubt that my paper was anterior, for 
Lichtenstein quotes it throughout. 
CoNEPATUS NASUTUS. 
Black, with one or two white dorsal streaks, Tail short, bushy, 
white or white-and-black varied. 
Mephitis nasuta, Bennett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1833, p. 29. 
Var. 1. nasuta. Black, with a very broad white dorsal streak; 
from forehead to tail white. B.M. 
Mephitis nasuta, Bennett, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1833, p.39; Gray, Mag. 
N. H. 1837, i.; Fraser, Zool. Typica, t. 
M. mesoleuca, Licht. Abh. Akad. Berl. 1838, p. 271; Darstell. t.44. 
f.2; Pr. Max. Arch. f. Naturg.1861,p.212; Baird, Mamm. N.A.192. 
Thiosmus mesoleuca, Less. Tabl. R. A. 66. 
Marputius nasuta, Gray, Mag. N. H. 1837, i. 
Proc. Zoou, Soc.—1865, No. X, 
