102 ANIMAL LIFE OF CARLSBAD CAVERN 



the room until I got up and shooed it back into its nest 

 box and fastened the door. On one of these occasions 

 it caught and killed two of my little kangaroo rats 

 before they discovered its presence, but the others kept 

 well out of reach around the room. In the cage it ate 

 the bodies of birds and small mammals that had been 

 skinned for specimens, as well as cooked meat, bread, 

 and fruit, but a large part of the natural food of this 

 species consists of insects, and mice and other small 

 rodents. Another spotted skunk, which lived in a 

 storehouse near the cave shaft, caught or drove out all 

 the wood rats and mice that had been living there. 



By many of the western people these little animals 

 are called " hydrophobia cats," or for brevity "phoby- 

 cats, " and their bite is believed invariably to convey 

 rabies. This is not the case, however, as their bite is 

 normally followed by no serious consequences, although, 

 if they were suffering from rabies, their bite would con- 

 vey the disease in the same way as that of a dog, cat, or 

 other infected animal. 



The little spotted skunk is about half the size of the 

 common skunk, black, strikingly striped and spotted 

 with white, and with the long brush of the tail all white. 

 Its odor is but little different from that of its larger 

 relatives. 



MEXICAN BADGER 



Taxidea berlandieri 



Badgers are fairly common in the valley country, but 

 rarely come up on the rocky ridges about the cave. 

 Their large burrows are especially common in prairie- 



