ISG 



NOTES ON CALirOIlXTA ANIMALS. 



disinfection. In the fiice of these difficnlties a letter arrived from Pro 

 fessor Baird suggesting' a new method of treatment for such .specimens, 

 Nvhicli was followed with gratifying success. "The best way of treating 

 the Skunks," he wrote, "is to catch them in a closed box trap, baiti'd 

 with meat. This box can be immersed in water and the animal drowned 

 without causing any smell. Last summer at Wood's IIoll [Mass.] eight 

 or ten were taken directly under the house which we occui)ied, and 

 we drowned them and sent them to Washington without their becoming 

 in any way a nuisance." 



The attempt at preserving the offensive specimens thatliad been shot 

 or taken in steel traps having failed, a box trap was baited with a young 

 chicken and jdaced under a sheep-herder's cabin to which the animals 

 resorted nightly. When visited the following morning it was found 

 sprung and proved to contain tlie desired species, although it was with 

 some misgivings that we ventured to peep into it. The captive being 

 uninjured had not been frightened into a discharge of its formid- 

 able secretion, and the characteristic odor of its family was barely 

 l^erceptible. It was a very pretty creature, and I regretted that it could 

 not be studied alive for a time, but adult Skunks in full possession 

 of their defensive armature are not well adapted for pets, so it was 

 converted into a dried specimen after the i^rescribed process, without 

 becoming offensive to any one. The method of killing Skunks by drown- 

 ing, I have since learned, has long been known, although apparently 

 not in that region. The herders told me that scarcely a night passed 

 without their being awakened by the noise made by Skunks rummaging 

 among the camp uiensils, and they hailed the box trap as a means of 

 s})eedy and safe deliverance from their persecutors. This Skunk, from 

 its very small size and apparently greater agility, is more dangerous to 

 poultry than the larger Mephitis me])hitica, being especially destructive 

 to young ehickens. At one ran<;h where I staid for a time it would 

 enter the coops and kill small chickens by the dozen, but never seemed 

 to disturb the hens that were brooding them. It was difficult to exclude 

 it, for it seemed to find its way into the coops as readily as a weasel. 



I shot one of these Skunks at this ranch one iiight, the; Chinese cook, 

 who had discovered it, holding a lamp to disclose its position among 

 the hen-coops. It ])ad already killed about ten small chickens, but had 

 made no attempt to disturb the hen that was covering them. 



