974 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



M. L. Michael, of the Skunk-farm once existing in Monroe 

 County, Pa., gives the following interesting illustration of the 

 mother Skunk's devotion. 



"One night," says he,° "I brought a female and her 7 

 babies, two or three weeks old, and enclosed them in a wooden 

 box. In the morning they were gone. The mother had 

 gnawed through the corner of her prison. Knowing that the 

 young, unable to walk, had been carried by their mother, I 

 called a dog trained to trail them, which at once led off. I 



-Young of M. putida just before birth (life £ 

 Cos Cob, Conn., May i 



followed closely. A mile away the mother was located in a 

 burrow. My men dug, and there we found her with her 7 

 children. By noting her tracks across a freshly harrowed field, 

 we discovered that she had made 4 trips, bearing necessarily 2 

 each trip, except once, when she took but i." Thus she 

 travelled 7 miles that night. 



About the time their eyes opened many young Skunks 

 were brought by the Indians to Hine's taxidermist shop at 

 Winnipeg. Though no larger than half-grown rats, they would 

 at once, v/hen frightened, assume their traditional attitude of 

 defence, and go through all the motions of receiving an enemy 

 and repelling him with the musk. But the musk itself was 

 lacking. When they were about a month old, however, it began 

 to be secreted, and henceforth grew in strength and quantity till 

 at three months the Skunklets were fully equipped and usually 

 had to be destroyed for their over-readiness to prove its power. 



The young remain in the den all spring, never going more 

 than a few yards away from home, and live on milk. About 



° Recreation Magazine, November, 1901, p. 362. 



