248 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. VIII 
variation, and often are broken into spots and bars, 
which variegate the black pelt in a very handsome 
way. One of these little fellows (Spzlogale putorius) 
is distributed throughout most of the Southern 
States and the whole region west of the Missis- 
sippi River. They can be domesticated like the 
others; and it is said that in Florida they are 
sometimes tamed and kept about the house, like 
cats, on account of their usefulness in catching 
mice. Several other species of Spilogale are found 
in the dry region stretching from Southern Utah 
to Central Mexico. Finally, we have, in Texas, 
and thence southward throughout Central and 
South America, the white-backed skunk, which 
the aborigines of Mexico called conepate, and 
naturalists call Conepatus mapurito. This species 
is rather larger than the common skunk, its head 
is narrower, and the snout more pig-like, and bald 
and callous on top, as if used to much rooting; while 
the tail, instead of being a long plume, is a short, 
stubby brush. In color it is black, like the others; 
but instead of stripes the whole back is white, from 
the forehead to and including the tail, giving a very 
striking blanket-like effect, but this often stops 
short of the tail, or is divided by a narrow black 
line along the spine. 
An excellent account of these southern skunks 
may be read in Bailey’s “ Biological Survey of 
Texas,” published by the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, in 1905, as No. 25 of the 
North American Fauna, 
