THE SPOTTED SKUNK OR CIVET CAT. 



575 



Skull and teeth. — Skull rather small and narrow, with the palate 

 ending s(iuarely behind, without a spine projecting backward 

 (PI. VI, figs. 8 and 4) ; teeth smaller than in the eastern skunk. 



Range. — This subspecies is known only from Indiana, Illinois 

 and Iowa. It is more closely related to forms to the southwest 

 than to the eastern skunk. 



The only positive record from Indiana is the one given by 

 Howell for Fowler, Benton County. It is very probable that this 

 is the species inhabiting all of the northwestern part of the State, 

 but the material necessary to determine this point is not at hand. 



Habits. — I know of no way in which the habits of this species 

 differ from that of the other, although its home is on the prairies 

 and undoubtedly it lives a somewhat different life from the skunks 

 of the rocky hills and woods. In the Kankakee Valley I learned 

 that the skunks generally occupy deserted woodchuck holes. 



Genus Spilogale Gray. 



Spilogale Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1865, p. 150. Howell, 

 North. Amer. Fauna, No. 26, 1906. 



Dental Formula.— I, |e|; C, Pm, M, ^^ = 34. 



Generic characters. — Form rather slender; skull relatively 

 broad and flat ; highly developed glands connected with the rectum. 

 The color is always black and white, and although the pattern is 

 not the same in different species, the white is always divided into 

 at least four nearly parallel stripes on the upper surface of the 

 body or a number of spots (PL V, fig. 2) ; it is never united into 

 one or two white bands as in Mephitis. 



SPILOGALE PUTORIUS (Linnaeus). 

 ALLEGHENIAN SPOTTED SKUNK. 



Viverra putorius Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., Ed. 10, p. 44, 1738. 



Mephitis pntorius Evermann and Butler, Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci. 

 for 1893, p. 139, 1894. 



Spilogale putorius Howell, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 26, p. 15, 1906. 



Diagnostic characters. — Body black, with four white lines, or 

 rows of white spots on the body. 



Description. — Form more slender than the common skunks, less 

 slender than the weasels; body black with the exception of one or 

 more white patches on the forehead, four white stripes running 

 from the back of the head to the posterior part of the body, some 

 white spots on the rump and flanks and the tip of the tail. The 



