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Show 354 DR. ST. G. MIVART ON THE ARCTOIDEA. [Apr. 21, rufa \ and is represented by one or other of them from Texas to Paraguay. It inhabits the mountain tracts of Costa Rica at a height of from 6000 to 7000 feet above the sea. Belt2 observed it pursuing large Iguanas, but they, when surprised asleep, usually dropped and escaped to another tree; yet the attempt would be continued again and again. He noticed it hunting in large bands, some individuals hunting over the ground and others in the trees, so that the prey had little chance of escape. In Guatemala it is one of the commonest mammals, ranging from the woods of the coast up to forests at a height of 9000 feet. The Coatis are very easily tamed, and are often seen in Spanish American houses, chained to one of the pillars of the corridor surrounding the courtyard. They are very variable in colour apart from differences of age and sex. The claws are of considerable size and much longer and stouter than those of Procyon. The digits also are much more united by skin, which extends down them as far as the penultimate joint of each. The nose is produce 1 into a short proboscis, the end of which is naked, and has its upper margin much the most projecting. There is no median groove to either nose or lip, but there is a lateral notch in the margin of either nostril. The snout is surrounded by the usual nasal cartilages, much enlarged, and appearing to be more or less fused together. It has a longer, slender, median dorsal cartilage. The ears are very hairy within as well as without. There is a very small tragus and a small bifurcating antitragus. The vertical ridge, ascending from the tragus to the helix, flattens out above. The anthelix is prominent and sharply defined ; the prominence below it is much less so. The palmar and plantar surfaces are naked. Six mammae are described as existing. There are 14 dorsal, 6 lumbar, and 3 sacral vertebrae as in Procyon, and from 19 to 23 caudal vertebrae. The dimensions are given in the tables annexed to this paper, and also the proportions, of which there need here be mentioned only the fact that the relative length of the pelvic limb to the spine is greater than in any Quanhpecotl, Hernandez, De Quad. N. Hisp. Fol. 6, cap. 17. Pisoti of Spanish Americans. Nose and edge of upper lip white ; face and cheeks dark brown ; fur long and soft, the long hairs of dorsal surface tipped with rufous, fulvous, or whitish ; tail of same colour as back, or with half rings on lower surface of basal half. Range from Texas to Panama, perhaps to Colombia (Tschudi's specimen said to be Brazilian was probably not so). 1 Coati, Marcgrave, Hist. Nat. Brazil, 1648, p. 228; Azara, Hist. Nat. Paraguay, i. 1802, p. 293. _ Coati noiratre, Buffon, viii. 1760, p. 358, pi. 47 Coati a queue annele, Brisson, Regne Anim. 1756, p. 263. Viverra nasua, Linn. Syst. Nat. i. 176(5, p. 64. Fur generally short and harsh ; long hairs of dorsal surface usually black-tipped ; ears rather large aud pointed; tail conspicuously annulated with 7-9 broad fulvous or rufous rings alternating with black ones. Brazil; Paraguay. 2 Naturalist in Nicaragua, p. 339. |
