332 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. [Yol.r. 



lislietl by Liclitenstein in 1830, based on specimens sent from Mexico by 

 Herr Deppe, in 1826 and subsequent years, of wliat proves to bave been 

 the nortbern form of the genus. This Lichtenstein, in his commentary 

 on the mammals noticed by Hernandez, * named and briefly described 

 Bassaris astuta, he recognizing in it the Cacamiztli, or Caca-mixtU, of 

 Hernandez, which the latter also mentioned under the name Tepe-maxtla. 

 These are still the common native names of the species, and mean 

 respectively "Eush Cat" and "Bush Cat." Shortly after B. astuta "was 

 more fully described by Lichtenstein, and also figured, t 



During the next thirty years, the habits of Bassaris astuta were 

 referred to by different writers, and the species repeatedly described 

 and figured, the illustrations including colored figures of the animal and 

 representations of the skull, skeleton, and dentition. | The notices of 

 Bassaris xDublished prior to 18G0 all relate, singularly enough, exclu- 

 sively to B. astuta, at which date the second or southern species {B. 

 sumichrasti) was first described. 



Professor Baird, writing in 1858 (Mam. IST. Amer., p. 147), says: "It 

 is as yet uncertain whether America possesses one or two species of 

 Bassaris, further investigation being necessary to determine the charac- 

 ter of the California species. They are found as far north as Red Eiver, 

 Arkansas, on the eastern slope of the continent ; on the western to the 

 latitude of San Francisco; southward they extend throughout temperate 

 Mexico. They bear in the United States the name of civet, Mexican, or 

 ring-tailed cats, and are frequently tamed in Mexico and California ; in 

 the latter country they are great pets of the miners." He adds : "Only 

 one authenticated skin, (So. 2343,) has been received from California; 

 this is a hunter's skin, not suificiently perfect to furnish a description." 

 The following year Professor Baird described (Rep. U. S. and Mex. 

 Bound. Surv., Mam., pp. 18, 19), under the name Bassaris astuta, two 

 sjDecimens from Texas and another from an unknown locality, supposed 

 to have come from California, naming the latter j)rovisionally Bassaris 

 raptor. His detailed account of the external features of the Texas 

 specimens indicate very fairly the northeastern phase of Bassaris astuta. 

 Respecting the specimen to which the name B. raptor was i^rovisioually 

 given, he says: "In the spring of 1852 (April 23), a specimen of 



* Erliititerungen der Naclirichten des Fran. He-rnandez von deu vieriiissigen Thieren 

 Nenspaniens. Abliandlungen d. Berlin. Akad. 1827 (1830), pp. 89-128. — Bassam astuta 

 is described and named at p. 119. The paper was read before the academy in 1827, but 

 not published till 1830. 



The genus Bassaris and the species B. astuta were also described by Wagler in the 

 "Isis" for 1831 (p. 511), one year subsequent to the publication of Lichten stein's 

 above-cited paper, both being accredited by him to Lichsenstein; yet various writers 

 have attributed the earliest notice of B. astuta to Wagler. 



tDarstellung neuer oder weniger bekannter Siiugethiere in Abbildungen und 

 Beschreibungen von fUnfundsechzig Arten, 1827-1834, pi. xliii. 



if See postea, table of reference under B. astuta. The skeleton has been figured by 

 Gervais and De Blainville, the dentition hy Blaiuville and Giebel, the skull by Lich- 

 tenstein, Baird, and Flower, and the animal by Lichtenstein, Wagner, Audubon and 

 Bachman, Wolf and Sclater, and Cordero. 



