354 



THE GUIDE TO NATURE. 



beings have had the shadowy side of 

 their character overdrawn by those 

 who were entirely free from mali- 

 ciousness and simply had not under- 

 stood. Many who look at the accom- 

 panying illustration will hardly believe 

 that it is taken from a photograph 

 of a real man and a real skunk which 

 forty-eight hours before the photo- 

 graph was taken had so far as known 

 never seen a man nor known that such 

 an animal existed. In the face of 

 these facts the photograph is not the 

 result of a miracle but simply the 

 judicious use of a little charity and 

 a little understanding. 



A trap set for a woodchuck first 

 introduced his skunkship to my notice, 

 and knowing that my friend, the edi- 

 tor, wished to secure a photograph, I 

 took it to the house and placed it in 

 a barrel where it spent a couple of 

 days waiting to have its picture taken. 

 When the time came, it presented a 

 problem ; of course it could not be 

 taken in the barrel — but how to get it 

 out. Several suggestions were made 

 but none were acted upon. 



1 have trapped a great many skunks 

 during my lifetime and as a rule have 

 found that it is a most harmless and 

 peaceful animal when left to itself never 

 attacking, and using the weapon with 

 which nature has provided it only as a 

 protection from a real or supposed at- 

 tack : for instance, one can walk very 



close to a skunk in a trap with perfect 

 safety but must walk slowly and avoid 

 any quick motion whatsoever or dis- 

 aster will surely follow. So quick are 

 they in anticipating an attack that 

 while it is easy to shoot one at short 

 range and distract its aim, it is totally 

 impossible to kill one even in this way 

 so quickly that it will not bring its de- 

 fensive organs into play and make at 

 least one effort to obtain revenge. 

 When these facts are considered it is 

 not strange that the skunk is not afraid 

 of man or anything else. 



This then was the situation in a 

 nutshell ; the skunk still remained in 

 the barrel and was likely to do so 

 for all time unless something more 

 practical than talk was employed. It 

 was then I determined to put the re- 

 sults of my studies of skunk nature 

 to a test. Telling the others to stand 

 back 1 walked up to the barrel, placed 

 my hand inside and very slowly ad- 

 vanced it toward the skunk. At the 

 least sign of uneasiness on the skunk's 

 part I stopped and waited until it 

 again became quiet. At last my hand 

 was within six inches of its head, and 

 then came the crucial test. Raising its 

 head it met my hand. Would that 

 skunk bite? Knowing the general be- 

 lief that a skunk's bite means hydro- 

 phobia, one can imagine that I was 

 a much interested observer. In fact 

 1 was "between the devil and the deep 



THE WILD SKUNK IN ITS TEMPORARY "PHOTOGRAPHING GALLERY." 



