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showing grub injury the typical skunk excavation was to be found but 
no trace of living grubs. A similar observation was made in an infested 
wheat field October 9, 1914, near Battle Creek, Mich. The farmers in 
the infested districts of Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, and Iowa are 
realizing the economic importance of the skunk, and are in many cases 
prohibiting hunters from killing it, and in other ways giving it their 
protection. 
The common mole (Scalopus aquaticus) is probably next in im- 
portance. Mr. Theo. H. Scheffer (65), after examining the stomach 
contents of 200 moles taken in all months of the year, concludes that 
white-grubs and earthworms constitute the bulk of their food; and Mr. 
J. A. West (82) finds from a study of the stomach contents of moles 
collected under varying conditions in various parts of Illinois, that a 
good per cent. of the food of moles consists of white-grubs and May- 
beetles. 
Mr. George G. Ainslie, of the Bureau of Entomology, made some 
interesting observations on the feeding habits of the common mole in 
confinement. The mole, which was taken in a field at Nashville, Tenn., 
June 28, 1911, was fed ten large Phyllophaga grubs, two wireworms, 
and one web-worm in succession, all of which it ate with relish. The 
mole would eagerly take a grub, quickly crush its head between its teeth, 
and leisurely eat the remainder oi the grub. 
At Farmington, Mich., October 23, 1914, A. F. Satterthwait saw 
an abundance of mole tunnels in an old timothy sod badly infested with 
grubs, the unusual amount of mole work in this field indicating that 
they, as well as skunks, were attracted there to feed on the grubs. A 
similar observation was made by Joe S. Wade, of the Bureau of Ento- 
mology, at Shawnee, Okla., the mole tunnels being conspicuous, 
especially in the worst-infested parts of the field. At Ashboro, Indiana, 
we found a quantity of May-beetle remains at the end of a mole tunnel, 
and on several occasions have traced the mole-runs in corn fields infested 
with grubs and found them leading directly to hills where grub injury 
had occurred. All our field observations indicate that the moles play a 
significant role in the natural control of white-grubs. 
Other animals which have been seen to feed on white-grubs or 
May-beetles are the raccoon (Procyon lotor), the coyote (Canis latrans), 
the fox, the opossum (Didelphys virginiana), and the gopher. (21, 45, ° 
55.) The first three are comparatively rare in most regions where white- 
grubs are important pests, and the ultimate value of the gopher is ques- 
tionable because of its injury to farm crops. Mr. J. S. Wade received 
a letter from a farmer of Shawnee, Okla., dated July 3, 1913, who 
reports killing a small striped gopher, or ground-squirrel—supposedly 
Citellus tridecemlineatus—in the immediate vicinity of grub-infested 
hay land and of examining its stomach, which contained about a dozen 
partly disintegrated grubs. Franklin’s spermophile (Citellus franklint) 
feeds on white-grubs, according to an examination of the stomach con- 
