.3:56 
IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
moved in the process of tanning. Though they varied in the 
amount of white in the body markings they were apparently all 
skins of Spilogale interrupta. 
Mr. Ranke stated that he has never seen one of the civets with 
white at the end of the tail. The skin purchased shows as much 
white in body markings as any of the others, but the tail is en- 
tirely black at the tip. Mr. Ranke also said that they are caught 
sparingly on the Illinois side of the Mississippi. 
Mr. Weil of Weil & Hirsch, fur buyers at Burlington, said 
that fifteen years ago Illinois trappers who came to Burlington 
from the Illinois side used to ask him what those little spotted 
skins were which they saw among his furs. Now, however, a 
few are caught on the Illinois side. Mr. Hirsch also said that 
about 10 per cent of all skunks trapped at Burlington are 
civets. 
In Keokuk I found in the public school collection, a mounted 
Spilogale interrupta, which was probably, though not certainly, a 
local specimen. It bore the date of March 6, 1873, and was la- 
beled Memphitis cMnga’\ 
Mr. Louis Sterne, a fur buyer in Keokuk, says that to his 
knowledge the civets always have black tails, and that about 
three out of ten of all skunks he buys are civets. 
On April 24 at Davenport three mounted specimens of Spilo- 
gale interrupta were examined at the Davenport Academy of 
Sciences. Two bore labels and the third was without data. Num- 
ber 6077 and number 6078, Spilogale interrupta, were both taken 
within the city limits of Davenport, December, 1905, by Mr. E. 
S. Balicrd. Each specimen showed a very little white pencil of 
hairs at the tip cf the tail. The skulls could not be examined. 
Upward cf sixty tanned skins of Spilogale interrupta, many 
from southeastern Iowa, were examined at the store of Richter 
and Sons, Davenpert. The tails were still on these skins and 
only seventeen showed even a pencil of white hairs at the extreme 
tip. 
Irnpiiry at Mt. Pleasant, Fairfield and What Cheer, indicates 
that the spotted skunk is a not uncommon animal in those parts. 
In the Mammal Hall of the State University of Iowa Museum 
are two mounted specimens and one skeleton of Spilogale inter- 
rupta, Ncs. 11370, 10624 and 11671. All were taken at Solon, 
Iowa, in the fall of 1894 and collected by J. M. Adams. These 
are typical. A skull of Spilogale interrupta, No. 24221, in the 
