■J^o.2.] ALLEN ON THE GENUS NASUA. 157 



2}usiIIa,* wliicli lie says is apparently a young- animal. lie adds: 

 "Hoclistens zwei Arten des eigentliclien Onati kann man als in den 

 Yon mir bereis'ten Gegeuden einlieimisch annelimen, wenu sie niclit aiif 

 eine reducirt werdeu niiissen, die Farbe aber kann, meinen Beobach- 

 tungen znfolge, keine Species derselben bestimmen" (1. c., ii, p. 297). 

 Finally, lie concludes liis article on the Coatis with an "Anmerkung-," 

 in which he says he has imperfectly learned of another animal which 

 appears to belong to the group of Coatis, but which differs a little in its 

 habits from the two- species he has described. This is his ^^fKasua noc- 

 turnaj das Jiq}ard oder niichtliche Cuati." The only skin he saw of this 

 reputed animal, said to inhabit the great forests of the eastern coast of 

 Brazil, was so imperfect that he was unable to determine certainly 

 about the genus. It differed from the other described Coatis somewhat 

 in color in being pale grayish-yellow above and pale yellowish-red below, 

 and through the absence of color-rings on the tail, which was colored 

 uniformly with the back. According to the Brazilian hunters, it lives 

 during the day in holes in trees, and goes abroad only in the night, the 

 hunters never seeing it in the daytime. It differs, he says, from the 

 other Coatis, if indeed it really belongs with them, not only in its noc- 

 turnal habits, but in its soft, fine hair and uniformly colored (''unge- 

 fleckten") tail. 



Wagner,t in 1841, united all the Coatis into one species, under the name 

 Nasiia socialis, but grouped his bibliographical references under the 

 heads of two varieties, called respectively " var. riifa aut fiilva,''^ and 

 " var. hrunea.^'' His view of the case maybe best presented in his own 

 words : " Die beiden Arten, welche aus dem gemeinen Cuati errichtet 

 worden, sind welter nichts als Farbenabanderungen, die sich, wie diess 

 der Prinz von l^euwied und Eengger gezeigt haben, in einer und der- 

 selben Familie und in demselben Wurfe beisammen vorfinden, und weder 

 vom Geschlecht, noch vom Alter, noch vom Klima bedingt sind." 



Von Tschudi, a little later (1844-46), recognized five species in his 

 " Fauna Peruana" (pp. 98-103), namely, the Wasua socialis and JW soli- 

 taria of Maximilian, and three new ones. The latter are JSf. leucorhynchus, 

 W. vittata, and JSF. montana. He gives only two as found in Peru — ]S\ 

 socialis,^ the usual or common species, and N. montano^ known from a 

 single specimen collected in the Peruvian Andes at an altitude of 8,000 

 feet above the sea. The N. leucorhynchus, von Tschudi states, is often 

 brought by travellers from the interior of Brazil, but there is apparently 

 good reason for questioning the correctness of the locality here assigned. 

 Under this name is given a good description of Linn^'s Viverranarica — 

 the first recognition of the species for nearly half a century, and the first 



*A "2\^asua Quasje, Geoflr. Collect, clu Mus.", is cited also byFisclier, and Gray gives 

 ^'Nasiia quask, Geoff. Mus. Paris"; Imt I cannot find tliat the name was ever puljlislicd 

 "by Geoffroy. 



tSclireber's Siiugt., Snppl., ii, 1841, p. 165. 



t As synonyms of X. socialis he cites Virerra "nasuta" and V. narica of Liuu(^, and 

 Nasua riifa and K. "rufina" of Desmarest. 



