876 Rural School Leaflet 



He travels mostly at night and so is seen only at dawn or early evening. 

 He catches quantities of mice and insects, thus doing the farmer much 

 more service than the loss that results frora stealing a few eggs and chickens. 

 He also delights in salamanders, frogs, and the eggs of birds that nest 

 on or near the ground. 



The characteristic most closely associated with this animal is beyond 

 doubt his " odoriferous gun." This comes from a fluid secreted by large 

 glands just under the tail, with ducts ending in papillae that can be pro- 

 truded and directed as the owner desires. Although armed with so wonder- 

 ful and effective a weapon, the skunk is very conservative in its use, 

 employing it only in defense and then giving fair warning by his actions 

 and by raising his tail. With provocation, the spray can be thrown ten 

 feet. At night it is slightly luminous. It is perhaps because of the 

 effectiveness of this weapon that skunks have abandoned the agile ways 

 of their brothers, the weasels and the minks, and have become fat, lazy, 

 and slow in their movements. These characteristics are certainly seen 

 in their tracks. In general, the track consists of a double line of foot- 

 prints, which are about the size of those of the domestic cat and about half 

 as far apart. The toe nails, however, form conspicuous and character- 

 istic marks. When the animals hurry, the footsteps are often in groups 

 of threes or oblique rows of fours. Skunks hibernate only in the severest 

 m.onths of the winter, coming out whenever the temperature allows, 

 regardless of the amount of snow on the ground. 



The young are bom about the end of April or the first of May, four to 

 six, or even ten, in a litter. They are about the size of a mouse, naked, 

 and with their eyes and ears closed. They stay with the parents through 

 the first winter even though full grown, so that eight or ten skunks of one 

 family are frequently found in one den. Each goes out for himself in the early 

 springtime. Young skunks are easily tamed, making very attractive and 

 interesting pets. They are easily caught in a trap or by digging out a den. 



The flesh of the skunk is commonly eaten by Indians and trappers and 

 is said to be white and of delicate flavor. 



"Sir Mephitis Mephitica, or, in plain English, the skunk, has waked up from his 

 six weeks' nap, and come out into society again. He is a nocturnal traveler, very bold 

 and impudent, coming quite up to the barn and outbuildings, and sometimes taking up his 

 quarters for the season under the haymow. There is no such word as hurry in his dictionary, 

 as you may see by his path upon the snow. He has a very sneaking, insinuating way, 

 and goes creeping about the fields and woods, never once in a perceptible degree altering his 

 gait; and, if a fence crosses his course, steers for a break or opening tj avoid climbing. He 

 is too indolent even to dig his own hole, but appropriates that of a woodchuck, or hunts 

 out a crevice in the rocks, from which he extends his ramblings in all directions, preferring 

 damp, thawy weather. He has very little discretion or cunning and holds a trap in utter 

 contempt, stepping into it as soon as beside it, relying implicitly for defense against all 

 forms of danger upon the unsavory punishment he is capable of inflicting." 



JOHN BURROUGHS 



