260 University of California Publications in Zoology [Vol.12 



Procyon pallidus Merriam 

 Pallid Coon 



An abundant representative of the riparian association everywhere. 

 The accompanying list shows localities of capture from Needles to 

 Pilot Knob, and also from one of the Colorado's distributaries. New 

 River, in the delta region near Imperial, California. 



At practically every place where we had occasion to examine the 

 muddy margin of the river or its lateral sloughs, the conspicuous foot- 

 prints of coons were to be seen. One coon was caught in an unbaited 

 trap set for beaver beneath the surface of the water, at the river's edge. 



The chief food of the coons was evidently fish. At a drying-up 

 overflow pond, the shallow water of which was crowded with catfish, 

 a profusion of the tracks of herons and coons showed a marked com- 

 munity of interests on the part of these two fishers. 



No young-of-the-year came to notice. The female caught May 11 

 near Pilot Knob contained four embryos. The one caught near 

 Imperial May 10 contained five embryos. The weight of the female 

 no. 10610, was 16 pounds. Two fat males, nos. 10606, 10607, weighed 

 18Yn and 18 pounds respectively. A lean male, no. 10609. weighed 

 but 13 pounds. The very large old male (no. 7153). from near 

 Imperial, weighed 20 pounds. 



In the original description of Procyon pallidus (Merriam, 1900, 

 p. 151), both external and cranial characters of this form are given. 

 The cranial peculiarities mentioned, as compared with Procyon psora, 

 do not appear to hold in our material. There is much variation in the 

 respects mentioned, as will be understood from the table of measure- 

 ments. In coloration alone, however, there is abundant basis for the 

 recognition of pallidus. 



The seven skins from the Colorado Valley, including Imperial 

 Valley, although somewhat variable in coloration, are in mass effect 

 conspicuously different from the coons of the Pacific Coast region. A 

 large series of skins of the latter are available for comparison; and 

 even selecting extremes from the pallidus and psora-pacifica series, 

 no overlapping of characters can be found in the material at hand. 



The general pallor of pallidus as compared with psora is due to : 

 (1) The far less amount of black on the individual hairs everywhere 

 except on the nose and cheeks. This is the converse of saying that 

 much more of each hair is white. Along the sides, on the ears and 

 on the light intervals between the tail-rings the hairs are pure white 

 with no black tippings. (2) The black areas are less in extent. The 



