342 FIELD MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY ZOOLOGY, VOL. XL 



be referred to this species, many of them, as has already been shown, are 

 not typical and strongly suggest intergradation. 



Skunks may be numbered among our best known animals, and, 

 although they have the reputation of being undesirable neighbors, 

 largely on account of their malodorous qualities, they are in reality 

 one of our prettiest mammals. They are naturally inoffensive and are 

 of great practical value to the farmer, as they destroy enormous quanti- 

 ties of grasshoppers, beetles, etc. and they also prey upon and kill 

 large numbers of Mice, Ground Squirrels, and other small mammals. 

 It is true that they occasionally kill chickens and suck eggs when they 

 find a nest, but the harm which they do is as nothing when compared 

 with their value to the agriculturist in ridding his gardens and fields 

 of the various pests which destroy his crops. 



Skunks usually make their homes in burrows in the ground, although 

 they are not averse to living under an outbuilding or occasionally in 

 an old hollow stump or log. In very cold weather there is no doubt 

 that they hibernate to a more or less extent, but their sleep cannot be 

 very deep or protracted, for on mild winter days I have often seen 

 their fresh tracks in the snow. Sometimes several Skunks live in a den 

 in winter and it is claimed that four or five are often found together 

 and sometimes as many as ten. It would seem probable that in most 

 cases they are members of one family of the preceding season, although 

 Kennicott states that as many as fifteen have been found in winter 

 lying in one nest.* 



The young are born in April or early in May and usually number 

 from 4 to 6, rarely more, although as many as ten in a litter have been 

 recorded. They are very pretty little animals and, as already stated, 

 when taken young and the scent glands removed they make interesting 

 and often affectionate pets. 



Regarding the scent glands of these animals I cannot do better than 

 quote my esteemed friend, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, who says:f 



"His chief weapon of defence lies in the secretion of a pair of anal 

 glands, that lie on either side of the rectum, and are imbedded in a 

 dense gizzard-like mass of muscle which serves to compress them so 

 forcibly that the contained fluid may be ejected to the distance of four 

 or five metres (approximately 13 to i6>^ feet). Each sac is furnished 

 with a single duct that leads into a prominent nipple-like papilla that is 

 capable of being protruded from the anus, and by means of which the 

 direction of the jet is governed. The secretion is a clear, limpid fluid 

 of an amber or golden yellow color, has an intensely acid reaction, and, 



* U. S. Agr. Kept, for 1858, U. S. Patent Office Rept., 1859, p. 249. 

 t Mamm. Adirondack Reg., 1886, pp. 76-78. 



