240 CALIFORNIA MAMMALS. 



Genus Spilogale Gray. (Spot — weasel.) 

 Body snaall and rather slender; tail long and bushy; anal 

 scent glands highly developed ; skull rather flat ; sectorial teeth 

 well developed ; palate not extending much back of molars ; sag- 

 gital crest usually small; occipital crest large; auditory bulla? 

 rather small; mastoid sinus inflated. 



Dental formula, I, 3 — 3; C, i — i ; P, 3 — 3 ; M, i — 2, X2^34. 



Spilogale phenax Merriam. (Deceptive.) 



WESTERN SPOTTED SKUNK. 



Black with white stripes ; four parallel white stripes from 

 the head to the hips, a white stripe commencing behind the fore- 



Western Spotted Skunk. 



leg running back and up on the hip with a spot on each side of 

 the backbone in the direction of its fellow^ stripe; a transverse 

 stripe across the back part of the hips interrupted at the back- 

 bone; a spot each side of the rump; more or less white at the 

 base of the tail; terminal third of the tail white, more extensive 



