WEAPON 



976 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



By October the younjj might pass for aduhs, but careful 

 comparison shows them to be a Httle smaller and much lighter 

 in weight than the old ones. 



They continue with their parents all fall and all winter. 

 During the coldest weather they roll up together in their under- 

 ground home, sometimes the one in which the litter was 

 born, and become torpid till called forth by a spell of warmer 

 days. 



The actual breaking up of the family is in the spring- 

 time, and the immediate cause seems to be the rearousing 

 mating instinct or, at least, the instinctive desire of the mother 

 to be alone when the next brood arrives. The young of the 

 previous year are now fully grown and able not only to care 

 for themselves, but probably also to breed. 



THE The Skunk is famous the world over for its 'smell-gun.' 



This has nothing at all to do with the urine, as vulgar error 

 would have it. The fluid is a liquid musk secreted by two 

 large glands under the tail. All the Weasels are pro\ided with 

 these, but they reach their glorious perfection in the Skunk and 

 furnish it with a wonderfully effective weapon of defence. 

 The glands are situated on each side of the anus; the duct from 

 them is ordinarily hidden away within the rectum, but can be 

 protruded for service. 



"The secretion is a clear limpid fluid of amber or golden- 

 yellow colour, has an intensely acid reaction, and in the evening 

 is slightly luminous."' {Merriam.) It has several other prop- 

 erties of interest. Those who have never smelt it may realize 

 some of its power if they imagine a mixture of perfume musk, 

 essence of garlic, burning sulphur and sewer gas, intensified 

 a thousand times. It is so strong that under certain circum- 

 stances it can be smelled for miles down wind. I remember 

 one summer evening at Carberry, Man., being greeted with 

 the powerful odour in great and sudden force; next day I found 

 that at that time a Skunk had been defending himself against a 

 dog on the open prairie, one and a half miles to windward of me. 



'Mam. .Adir., 1884, p. 76. 



