[a. Tupi (lang. of Brazil) coati, coatim, cuati(m, f. cua cincture + tim nose: cf. the zool. name Nasua.] An American plantigrade carnivorous mammal of the genus Nasua (family Ursidæ), somewhat resembling the Civet and the Racoon, with a remarkably elongated flexible snout.
There are two species or sub-species; the Brazilian coati, Nasua rufa, to which the name originally belongs, and the Mexican or brown coati N. narica.
1676. Phil. Trans., XI. 596. This Coati of our Authors.
1790. Bewick, Hist. Quadrupeds, 235. The Coati, or Brazilian Weasel.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xv. 39. The coati … set up their sharp, quick bark.
1866. Owen, Anat. Vertebrates, II. 501. In the Coati, the olfactory chamber … extends above the whole rhinencephalic fossæ.
b. Also called Coati-mondi. [Said to be from mondi in a Brazilian lang. ‘solitary.’]
1676. Phil. Trans., XI. 596. The Coati Mondi, a Brasilian Animal.
1723. Mackenzie, Coati Mondi, ibid. XXXII. 317. The Coati Mondi of Brasil is seldom or never brought alive into Europe.
1774. Goldsm., Nat. Hist. (1862), I. VII. xiii. 555. This animal [the coatimondi] is very subject to eat its own tail…: this strange appetite is not peculiar to the coati alone.
a. 1845. Hood, Open Question, iv. Was strict Sir Andrew, in his sabbath coat, Struck all a heap to see a Coati Mundi?
