212 The Mammals of Colorado 
The cranial characters, shorter hind foot, and relatively long tail, 
and consequently smaller body, serve to separate this species from 
M. hudsonica. It should be said that specimens from Colorado, 
which seems to be the northwestern limit of its range, have shorter 
tails than the typical form from Texas, in which the tail is more 
than one half the total length. 
Distribution. — This is a more southern species than the preceding, 
being found from Nebraska and Colorado south into Mexico, and 
the two States just named seem to define its longitudinal limits, it 
also being found in Kansas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, and western 
Texas. It probably does not range very far south into Mexico. In 
Colorado it has been met with in Larimer, Boulder, Yuma, El Paso, 
Kiowa, Baca, Prowers, Las Animas, Fremont, Costilla, Gunnison, 
and Montrose counties. 
FIG. 68. LONG-TAILED TEXAS SKUNK, Mephitis mesomelas varians 
In trap. E. R. Warren, Photo. 
Genus SPILOGALE (Grk. spihs, spot, + gale, weasel) 
Spilogale Gray, Proc. Zodl. Soc. London, p. 150 (1865). Type, 
Mephitis interrupta Rafinesque. 
Revision, Howell, A'. A. Fauna, No. 26 (igo6). 
