102 MAMMALIA, 
ted with white about the head, and distinguished from 
the preceding ones by the extension of the hair to the under 
surface of the toes. It inhabits the coldest mountains, and the 
hunting to obtain it, in the midst of winter and tremendous 
snows, is a perilous and painful undertaking. It is to the pur- 
suit of this animal that we owe the discovery of the eastern 
countries of Siberia. 
North America also possesses several Martens indicated by 
naturalists and travellers, under the indefinite names of Pekan, 
Vison, Mink, &c. 
One of them, the White Vison of the furriers, Mus. leutreoce- 
phala, Harl., has as hairy feet and almost as soft a fur as the 
Sable, but is of a light fawn colour, and almost white about the 
head. 
That which we call the Pekan; Must. canadensis, Gm., and 
which comes from Canada and the United States, is of a brown- 
ish colour, mixed with white on the head, neck, shoulders and 
top of the back ; nose, crupper, tail and limbs blackish.(1) 
Mepuitis, Cuv. 
The Skunk, like the Polecat, has two false molars above and three 
below, but the superior tuberculous one is very large, and as long 
as it is broad, and the inferior carnivorus has two tubercles on its 
internal side, circumstances which ally it to the Badger just as the 
Polecat approximates to the Grison and Glutton. Independently 
of this, the anterior nails of the Skunk, like those of the Badger, are 
long and fitted for digging ; they are moreover semi-plantigrade, and 
the resemblance extends even to the distribution of their colours. 
The whole family are remarkable for their fetid exhalations, but the 
Skunk is pre-eminently distinguished by its most horrible and suf- 
focating stench. 
Skunks are generally marked with white stripes on a black 
ground, but the number of stripes appears to vary in the same 
species. The most common species of North America is the 
M. putorius.; Viverra putor., Gm.; Catesb. Carol. I, Ixii. 
Schreb. CXXII. (The American Skunk.) Black, with stripes 
of white, larger or smaller, and more or less numerous $ the tail 
is black, and the tip white. The odour it produces resembles 
(1) It is the Pékan of Daubenton, but it has not always the white under the 
throat. [See Append. V. of Am. Ed.) 
There are several other species of Polecats or of Martens indicated by MM. 
Molina, Humboldt and Harlan ; but they require re-examination. 
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