988 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



foes, excepting always man and one or two of the cutthroats 

 and desperadoes of the animal world. 



When facing death by starvation the Fox is said to con- 

 sider the Skunk the less of the two evils; doubtless this is a 

 question to be carefully pondered. 



The horned owl, the midnight pirate of the woods, is 

 known to kill the Skunk. Of course the owl has an advantage 

 over all other foes. It is silent, it can swoop down from above, 

 seizing the Skunk unawares by neck and loins, much as I did 

 when I held my captive under the board. In this way the 

 quadruped is nearly helpless. It cannot reach the owl with its 

 musk or use its teeth or claws, but it can make the whole place 

 intolerable, and doubtless the feathered assailant is often 

 repelled. The fact of its smelling strong of Skunk does not 

 by any means prove that the owl had dined off Skunk. On such 

 evidence I and many of my friends might be proven mephitivo- 

 rous carnivores. 



DISEASE "The adult Skunks taken at North Bay are all infected 



by the parasite that disfigures the frontal regions of the skulls 

 of a large proportion of specimens of North American Mus- 

 telidae. I submitted one of the North Bay skulls with the 

 parasites preserved in formalin in situ to Dr. W. McM. Wood- 

 worth, who identified the worms as Filaroides mustelarum, a 

 viviparous nematode hitherto recorded from Europe only, 

 where it has been found in various species of Putorius and 

 Mustek.'"^ {Miller.) 



STRANGE f he following strange instance was related to me by Will 



INST AN- o o -* ^ 



cEs H. Thompson, the famous archer: About fifty years ago his 

 father, the Rev. Griggs H. Thompson, was travelling through 

 a wooded part of Missouri when he heard a loud "qu-a-a-a 

 qu-a-a-a qu-a-a-a," like the cry of some little animal in pain. 

 He peered through the bushes and saw a Cottontail Rabbit 

 leaping over the body of a Skunk, striking it with its hind-feet, 



" Mam. Ont., Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., April, 1897, p. 42. See also Amer. Nat., 

 March, 1897, Vol. 31, pp. 234-5. 



