13 ^ 
CAR.VIVORA. 
THE CAPE POLECAT. LE PUTOIS DU CAP. CwoieV, 
LA ZORILLE. 
Viverra Zorilla, Gm. 
Buffon, Gmelin, and others, describe this animal 
under the name of viverra zorilla, or zorille, a name 
by which the Spanish Americans distinguish the 
mephitic weasels, and which means a little fox. The 
errors of so useful and fascinating a writer as Buffon 
must necessarily be difficult of eradication ; and this 
transferring of the proper name of one species to 
another has induced much confusion on the subject 
of the mephitic weasels. The specific character of 
the teeth, in which this animal agrees with the pole- 
cat tribe, and the absence of that superlatively nox- 
ious stink, which is emitted by the mephitic weasels, 
separates it from the latter animals ; though it pos- 
sesses, in common with them, claws calculated for 
digging, which consequently indicate, to a certain 
degree, their mode of life, and distinguish them 
from the other polecats \ whence it is separated into 
a distinct genus by Iliger : it is also assimilated to 
the American mephitic weasels in appearance. Its 
colour is black, with three dorsal white stripes, ex- 
tending from the occiput to the tail, which is spread, 
and generally carried erect. Notwithstanding these 
