TENNESSEE MAMMALS KELLOGG 263 



signed on March 31, 1785, the vahie of a cased otter skin was fixed 

 at 6 shillings and that of an uncased skin at 5 shillings (Ramsey, 

 1853, p. 297). The same Assembly in 1788 fixed the salary of the 

 State treasurer at 450 otter skins (Williams, 1924, p. 215). 



B. C. Miles reported to Rhoads (1896, p. 197) that he had seen an 

 otter that was killed at Open Lake, Lauderdale County, during the 

 winter of 1895. Rhoads also learned that otters were often seen by 

 hunters at Reelfoot Lake. 



SPILOGALE PUTORIUS (Linnaeus): Alleghenian Spotted Skunk 



Howell (1909, p. 65) states that the spotted skunk was reported 

 scarce in the vicinity of Briceville, Anderson County. Komarek and 

 Komarek (1938, p. 150) list one specimen that was taken in the Great 

 Smoky Mountains National Park but give no definite locality. 



Campbell County: Highcliff, 1. 



Sullivan County: Holston Mountains, head of Flshdam Creek, 1. 



MEPHITIS MEPHITIS NIGRA (Peale and Beauvois): Eastern Skunk 



The eastern skunk seems to be distributed in Tennessee west of 

 the southern Allegheny Mountains. It occasionally takes up resi- 

 dence under a house or barn but generally is found in its own bur- 

 rows or in abandoned burrows of some other animal. These are 

 usually located in rocky terrain hidden by thickets or in clumps of 

 brush at corners of rail fences. Rhoads (1896, p. 199) was told that 

 skunks were "rare in the IMississippi lowlands" and reported that he 

 "rarely detected the signs of this animal in Tennessee, though every- 

 one seems to be acquainted with the animal in all localities visited 

 except, perhaps, on the summits of the highest mountains." Perrygo 

 reports that he saw no crushed skunks on the roads over which the 

 Museum party drove their car during 1937 and that the familiar 

 odor was not noted at any time except in the case of one taken in 

 Lincoln County. This skunk was trapped in a rock ledge partially 

 hidden in a hedgerow consisting of scrub cedar, briers, and cacti near 

 farm buildings west of Fayetteville. Near Waynesboro one was killed 

 in the deciduous woods on a rather dry hillside. Skunks were re- 

 ported to be fairly common in Wayne County, but more skimks were 

 said to be present in Lincoln County than in any other part of the 

 State visited by the Museum party. The specimen from Camp- 

 bell County, although not typical, is referred to nigra rather than to 

 elongata^ which occurs in eastern West Virginia. 



Campbell County: Highcliff, 1. 



Lincoln County: 2 miles west of Fayetteville, 1. 



"Wayne County: Waynesboro, 1. 



