Bangs.] 532 [May 15, 
Description of the type of Mephitis rnephitica dongata Bangs. 
General characters. Size smiU, bo:ly slender, feet slender, tail long and 
tapering to a point, tippad with a p^n^il of white hairs; soles naked except 
the heel which is sparsely covered with hair. 
Cjlor. The u^ual white frontal stripe is narrow and does not reach the 
nuchal patch which is large, two broad white bands extend back from the 
nuchal patch over the sides of the back to and down the sides of the tail. 
The tail is mixed black and white above and below and tipped with a wliite 
pencil. 
The rest of body, legs, head, and arms are black. 
A very old $ adult topotype, No. 3052, coll. of E. A. and O. 
Bangs, March 10, 1895. Total length 719 mra. ; tail vertebrae 
321 mm. ; hind foot 76 mm. ; ear from notch 34 mm. (measurements 
taken in flesh by the collector, Outram Bmgs) ; nearly black all 
over, having neither the usual white frontal stripe nor the white 
tip to the tail, the only white being the nuchal patch and two 
narrow bands extending back to about the middle of the sides. 
The tail is wholly blaak at the surfase but man}^ of the liair.s are 
white for their basal half. 
There seem to be no cranial characters of any importance by 
which the skulls of the two races of the eastern skunk can be 
separated, until we reach truly Hudsonian country. I have three 
skulls from Nova Scotia, — -a young 9 half grown, ^ and a very old 
adult J '^ from Digby, and the young adult (J ^ described below 
from Annapolis. Nova Scotia, at least so far as its mammals are 
concerned, is Hudsonian. 
These three skulls from Nova Scotia show one very striking 
difference from any other skulls that I have seen from the east. 
I have, however, examined none from farther north than Upton 
and Bucksport, Maine, both in the Canadian zone. 
While it may be possible that the skulls from Nova Scotia 
represent a different form from anything on the main land, [ do 
not think it probable and prefer to consider them as the Hud- 
sonian extreme of the northern race. 
The main difference is that the postpalatal notch in the Nova 
Scotian skulls ends in a plain, curved line with no sign of a 
median spine. In all the other eastern skulls before me, including 
1 2023 coll. of E. A. and O. Bangs. 
2 2022 coll. of E. A. and O. Bangs, 
s 2249 coll. of E. A. and O. Bangs. 
