CARNIVORA. 
149 
It is scarcely possible to discover, from books, how 
many species of the mephitic weasels exist. A pro- 
bability is assumed, that the same species has been 
described by different writers, under different names, 
and the numbers of them, consequently, erroneously 
increased. The principal external differences in them 
appear to consist of the number of white stripes, 
which pass down the back and sides of the animals, 
on a black ground. The descriptions of the mephitic 
stench of all seem nearly to accord. 
Buffon collected together several accounts, from 
various voyages and travels, from which, and from 
the observation of a few skins, he established four 
species. These he called, coase, conepate, chinche, 
and zorillo; and the supplement to his work contains 
a fifth, under the name of mouffette de Chili. 
The first of these, the coase, does not, certainly, 
correspond with any known animal ; and, as has 
been surmised, may be described from a mutilated 
skin of the coatimondi, a plantigrade animal, whence 
it has been dismissed as supposititious. 
The conepate is thought to be the animal described 
by Catesby, and not the yagouar<^ of Azara, as this 
traveller conjectured. It is the viverra putorius of 
Gmelin. 
The chinche, the viverra mephitis of Linnaeus, 
appears also to be distinct. 
The zorillo was certainly described by Buffon from 
a specimen of the Cape marten before mentioned ; 
and the name he attributed to it belongs properly to 
the animal described in his supplement, under the 
