MAMMALS—MELOTAE-MEPHITIS MEPHITIC A. 
195 
List of specimens. 
Catalogue 
numbers. 
Corresponding 
No of skull. 
Locality; 
Whence obtained. 
Nature of specimen. 
2031 
Santa Clara Cal 
Dr. J. G. Cooper_,_ 
Skull. 
2434 
TV^ta.l n tti a, f!g,l 
E. Samuels_ 
2617 
Skin. 
Fort Steilacoom, W. T. 
Dr. G. Suckley_...._ 
MEPHITIS MEPHITIC A. 
Skunk. 
Viverra mephitica, Shaw, Museum Leverianum, 1792, 172; plate.— Ib. Gen. Zool. I, 1800, 390. 
Mephitis chinga, Tiedemann, Zool. I, 1808, 362. (In part.) 
Licht. Darst. Saugt. 1827-34; plate xlv, f. 1.— Ib. Ueber Mephitis, Abh. Akad. Wiss. Berl. for 
1836, (1838,) 280. 
Maxim. Reise Nord. Amer. I, 1839, 250. 
Wagner, Suppl. Schreb. II, 1841, 198. 
Aud. & Bach. N. A. Quad. I, 1849, 317; pi. xlii. 
Giebel, Saugt. 1855, 766. 
Mustela ( Mephitis ) americana, Desm. Maram. I, 1820, 186. 
Mephitis americana, Jos. Sabine, Zool. App. Franklin’s Journey, 1823, 653. 
Harlan, Fauna Americana, 1825, 70. 
Doughty's Cab. N. H. II, 1832, 193; pi. xvii. 
Dekay, N. Y. Zool. I, 1842, 29; pi. xii, f. 1. 
Mephitis americana var. hudsonica, Rich. F. B. A. I, 1829, 55. 
Chincha americana, Lesson, Nouv. Tabl. R. A. 1842, 67. 
Mephitis chinche, (Tied.) Fischer, Syn. 1829, 160, (in part.) 
Le chinche, St. Hil. & Cuv. Hist, des Mammif. II, 1819; plate. (Louisiana ) 
Sp. Ch. —Soles naked, except on the posterior third. Tail vertebrae half the length of head and body, with hairs considerably 
less. Color black; a narrow frontal line; a broad triangular nuchal patch, continuous, with a narrow line on either side of the 
back, nearly to the tail, and a tuft at the end of the tail, white. The dorsal stripes sometimes broader; sometimes wanting, as 
also the nuchal patch. 
This species varies considerably in its markings, though individuals from the same locality 
are usually quite similar. In a series of five specimens from Middleboro’, Massachusetts, the 
prevailing color is, of course, black. There is a narrow white line on the forehead. Just back 
of the ears, on the nape, commences a broad triangular patch of yellowish white, the base 
anteriorly a transverse straight line of about two inches in width, and the length about one-half 
greater. On the upper part of the neck, confluent with this patch, commence two narrow lines 
of white, one on each side, which run parallel to each other for a few inches, then diverge rapidly 
and cease abruptly a little beyond the middle of the body. The tail is black, with a narrow tuft 
of white in the extreme tip ; all the caudal hairs are white at the base. There is also a small 
tuft of white hairs on each side of the tail near the base. One specimen lacks the terminal 
white tuft, but this appears to have been lost or not grown out. In those possessing it the 
white hairs project many inches beyond the end of the black ones, and are of a different texture. 
A skin from Washington city is black, with the frontal narrow white line, and a crescentic 
white patch on each side of the head, behind the ear; no nuchal patch whatever; there is a 
