702 DR. J. E. GRAY ON THE URSIDA. [Dee. 13, 
2. NASUA NARICA. B.M. 
Fur blackish brown, beneath yellowish; head ashy ; tail black 
and yellow, obscurely ringed. The sides of the nose are sometimes 
marked with a black and white streak. 
Viverra narica, Linn. 8. N. i. 64; Schreb. Sdugeth. t. 119. 
Ursus narica, Cuvier, Tab. Elém. 113, 1798. 
Viverra quasie, Gmelin, 8. N. i. 87. 
Nasua quasie, Geoff. Mus. Paris. 
NV. leucorypha, Tschudi, Arch. fiir Naturg. 
? N. nocturna, Pr. Max. Beitr. ii. 298. 
N. obfuscata, Mliger, Prodr. 
N. mondie, Iliger, Prodr. 
N. fusca, Desm. Mamm. 170; P. Z. 8. 1859, p. 435; 1860, 
p. 243, 333. 
? N. solitaria, Pr. Max. Beitr. ii. 299. 
NV. socialis fusca, Fischer, Syn. Mamm. 149. 
N. narica, Gray, Cat. Mamm. B. M. 74. 
Coati brun, Cuvier, Régne Anim. i. 444; F. Cuvier, Mamm. 
Lithogr. t.; Buffon, H. N. viii. t. 48, 49. 
Dusky Brazilian Weesel, Penn. Syn. 330. 
Couati, Azara, Essai, i. 334. 
Meles surinamensis, Brisson, Régne Anim. 255. 
Narica, Linn. Act. Holm. 1768, p. 152, t. 
Le Coati noirdtre, Buffon, H. N. viii. t. 47. 
Hab. Surinam (J. H. Lance). 
T have examined with care a series of skulls which are said to have 
belonged to these two species, but have been unable to discover any 
characters by which the skulls belonging to one species can be distin- 
guished from those belonging to the other. The skulls of animals 
of each species vary considerably in the breadth and flatness or con- 
vexity of the palate, in the form of the palate behind near the hinder 
nasal aperture, and in the length of the line occupied by the upper 
canines and grinders. 
In most of the specimens of N. rufa and N. narica the upper 
canine teeth and the grinders occupy a line of 14 inch; but in 
two large skulls, with very strong occipital ridges and expanded 
zygomatic arches, the teeth occupy a line rather more than 2 inches 
long ; in another large skull, with the occipital ridge less developed, 
and the zygomatic arches less prominent, they occupy the same 
length: the skulls are each 5 inches long ; and one is 33, the other 33, 
and the last 3 inches wide. But I can find no other characters to 
separate them, nor can I find any young specimens having similar 
characters. 
If I had only two or three skulls, I might have perhaps seen dif- 
ferences which I might have regarded as distinctions; but when a 
series of some twenty or more are examined, it is impossible to de- 
fine any distinction. ; 
