82 MAMMALIA. 



off. we suffered them successively to come out. As they slowly 

 emerged and were walking off, they were killed with coarse shot 

 aimed at the shoulders. In the course of half an hour, seven (the 

 number contained in the burrow) were obtained; one only was offen- 

 sive, and we were enabled without inconvenience to prepare six of 

 them for specimens."'^ But it is explicitly mentioned that "they 

 were killed with coarse shot aimed at the shoulders," and this fact 

 explains why six out of seven did not smell, for some of the shot 

 doubtless hit the cord. 



Skunks caught in dead-falls rarely ever emit scent, and for the 

 simple reason that their backs are broken and their hinder parts 

 paralyzed. 



A veteran fox trapper, Mr. C. L. Whitman, of Weston, Vermont, 

 rids his traps of Skunks by slipping a wire noose over their heads 

 and choking them to death. He claims that they rarely smell when 

 thus dealt with.f 



When caught in the vicinity of water, they are easily drowned, and 

 when so treated never smell. 



Some common fallacies conxerning Skunks. 

 1st. What the Scent is. 



It was for many vears believed, even amono-st naturalists, that the 

 scent of the Skunk was its urine, and this belief is still widely prev- 

 alent with the masses of our population. The urine of the Skunk 

 has no offensive or even characteristic odor, the scent beino- the 

 secretion of a pair of highly developed and specialized anal glands, 

 which have already been sufficiently described. (See p. 76.) 



2d. How it is Scattered. 

 The vulgar notion that the Skunk scatters its scent with its tail 

 was formerly so universal and wide spread that no less renowned a 



* Quadrupeds of North America, vol. I, 1846, p. 324. 



f Forest and Stream, Feb. 17, 1876. Quoted by Coues in Fur-bearing Animals, 1877, p. 217. 



