76 MAMMALIA. 



The flesh of the Skunk is white, tender and sweet, and is delicious 

 eating. It is not unhke chicken, but is more deHcate, and its taste is 

 particularly agreeable. Being, happily, free from any of that " squeam- 

 ishness" which Audubon and Bachman lament as preventing them 

 from tasting the meat of this animal, I am able to speak on this point 

 from ample personal experience — having eaten its flesh cooked in a 

 variety of ways, boiled, broiled, roasted, fried, and fricasseed — and 

 am prepared to assert that a more " toothsome bit" than a broiled 

 Skunk is hard to get, and rarely finds its way to the table of the epi- 

 cure. 



The fore-feet of the Skunk are provided with long claws, which he 

 employs in excavating his burrows and in digging after mice, which 

 latter occupation consumes a large share of his time. He is also 

 armed with a fine set of sharp teeth, that are capable of inflicting 

 severe wounds; still, his chief weapon of defence lies in the secretion 

 of a pair of anal glands, that lie on either side of the rectum, 

 and are imbedded in a dense, gizzard-like mass of muscle which 

 serves to compress them so forcibly that the contained fluid may 

 be ejected to the distance of four or five metres (approximately 

 13 to 162 feet). Each sac is furnished with a single duct that 

 leads into a prominent nipple-like papilla that is capable of being 

 protruded from the anus, and by means of which the direction 

 of the jet is governed. The secretion is a clear limpid fluid of an 

 amber or golden yellow color, has an intensely acid reaction, and, in 

 the evening, is slightly luminous. On standing, in a bottle, a floccu- 

 lent, whitish precipitate separates and falls to the bottom. The fluid 

 sometimes shows a decided greenish cast, and it always possesses 

 an odor that is characteristic, and in some respects unique. Its 

 all-pervading, penetrating, and lasting properties are too well known 

 to require more than passing comment. I have known the scent 

 to become strikingly apparent in every part of a well-closed house, 

 in winter, within five minutes" time after a Skunk had been killed 

 at a distance of an hundred metres (about twenty rods) ! The' 



