102 REPORT OF NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 
Genus MEpuHITIs Cuvier. 
Skunks. 
Mephitis mephitica putida (Cuvier). 
Eastern Skunk. 
PLATE SI. 
Length, 2 feet. Body covered with long hair; tail very large 
and bushy; color, black with a white patch on the back of the 
neck, from which two stripes extend down the back and along 
the sides of the tail, and a white stripe down the forehead. ‘The 
extent of the white stripes varies greatly. 
The skunk is well known everywhere but owes his notoriety 
to our sense of smell rather than sight. The peculiar scent with 
which nature has provided him and which he discharges freely 
when disturbed serves him well as a means of protection, and 
he travels about at dusk comparatively free from molestation. 
The great horned owls and other predatory birds or mammals 
occasionally catch skunks, but probably not unless driven by 
hunger. 
The skunk shares with the other members of this family, the 
enmity of the farmers for inroads upon their poultry yards, but 
he is far less injurious than the allied mink and weasel, his 
rather clumsy gait and terrestrial habits make him but a poor 
chicken thief compared with his more agile relatives. 
The main food of the skunk is found in the woods and fields, 
and consists of beetles, bugs, grasshoppers and larvze of all sorts 
of ground-living insects, so that in this way he does us a benefit 
which, perhaps offsets the damage that he is responsible for. 
In winter time skunks seek their burrows and spend a large 
part of the cold weather sleeping under ground. ‘These burrows 
are in the woods or along old fences, in old orchards, ete. 
Sometimes I feel sure they are simply deserted burrows of the 
woodchuck. A whole family of six to eight will often be found 
in one hole. 
