1895-1 529 [Bangs. 
COUNt'ILLORS FOR TWO YEARS, 
S. L. Abbot. Edward G. Gardiner. 
William S. Bryant. Henry W. Haynes. 
William M. Davis. Miss Catharine I. Ireland. 
J. Walter Fewkes. Benjamin Joy Jeffries. 
councillors for one year, 
George H. Barton. Nathaniel T. Kidder. 
William Brewster. Edward S. Morse. 
Miss Cora H. Clarke. A. Lawrence Botch. 
BoBERT T. Jackson. William T. Sedgwick. 
councillors ex-officils, 
Thomas T. Bouve. George L. Goodale. 
John Cummings. F. W. Putnam. 
Samuel H. Scudder. 
(tp:>-ekal Mp:etin(;, May 15, 1895. 
President W. H. Niles in tlie cliair. Thirty persons present. 
Prof. Thomas Dwight gave an account of the anatomy of the 
cliimpanzee "Gumbo." See Memoirs Boston society of natural 
history, vol. 5, no. 2. 
Prof. N. S. Shaler read a paper on the conditions of escape of 
gases from the interior of the earth. 
The following papers were read : — 
NOTES ON NORTH AMERICAN MAMMALS. 
BY OUTRAM BANGS. 
THE SYNONYMY OF THE EASTERN SKUNK, MEPHITIS MEPHI- 
TICA (SHAW), WITH THE DESCRIPTION OF A 
NEW SUBSPECIES FROM FLORIDA. 
There has always l)een some doubt in my mind wliether 
Linnaeus's name J^iverra meniphitis^ in the tenth edition of the 
Systema naturae should not be used for our eastern skunk ; and 
in order to settle this I have been at some pains in looking up 
tlie early history of this beautiful but ill-smelling little animal. 
Linnaeus's description is wholly inadequate, but he refers to 
the three following authors all of Avhom I have carefully read : — 
1. Hernandez, Mexico, 332. 
1 Un(lou))te(lly a typographical error for mephitis. 
proceedings u. s. n. h. vol. x.kvi. 34 OCT. 1895. 
