102 REPORT OF" NEW JERSEY STATE MUSEUM. 



Genus Mephitis Cuvier. 



Skunks. ' 



Mephitis mephitica putida (Cuvier). 



Eastern Skunk. 



Plate 51. 



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 larvae of all sorts 

 of ground-living insects, so that in this way he does us a benefit 

 which, perhaps ofifsets 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, etc. 

 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. 



