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MEPHITIS MACROUR A.— L icht. 
Large-Tailed Skunk. 
PLATE Cl I.— M ale. 
M. magnitudine felis cati (domestica), fusco-niger, striis duabus albis 
dorsalibus, vitta alba frontali, cauda capite longiore. 
CHARACTERS. 
S ize of the domestic cat J general colour, brownish-black ; a white stripe on 
each side of the back, and on the forehead ; tail longer than the head. 
SYNONYMES. 
Mephitis Macroura. Licht., Darstellung neuer oder wenig bekannter Saugthiere, 
Berlin, 1 82*7—34, Tafel xlvi. 
“ Mexicanus Gray. Loudon’s Mag., p. 581. 1837. 
DESCRIPTION. 
Body, as in other species of this genus, stout ; head, small ; nose short, 
rather acute, and naked ; ears short, rounded, clothed with short hair on 
both surfaces ; eyes, small ; claws, slender and weak ; soles of the feet 
naked. 
The body is covered with two kinds of hair ; the first long and glossy, 
the fur underneath soft and woolly ; tail very long, rather bushy, covered 
with long hairs, and without any of the softer and shorter fur. 
COLOUR. 
There are slight variations in the markings of the specimens we 
examined in the museums of Berlin and London, and in those we possess. 
This species appears, however, to be less eccentric in colour and markings 
than the common skunk M. chinga. 
In the specimen from which our figure was made, there is a rather broad 
longitudinal white stripe running from the nose to near the back of the 
head ; upper surface of neck and back, white, with a narrow black dorsal 
stripe beginning on the middle of the back and running down on the upper 
surface of the tail ; a spot of white under the shoulder, and another along 
