Waterfowl. 6 3 



The skunks are a nuisance in more ways than one. 

 They are stunid, familiar beasts, with a great predi- 

 lection for visiting camps, and the shacks or huts of 

 the settlers, to pick up any scraps of meat that may 

 be lying round. I have time and again known a 

 skunk to actually spend several hours of the night in 

 perseveringly digging a hole underneath the logs of 

 a hut, so as to get inside among the inmates. The 

 animal then hunts about among them, and of course 

 no one will willingly molest it ; and it has often been 

 known to deliberately settle down upon and begin to eat 

 one of the sleepers. The strange and terrible thing about 

 these attacks is that in certain districts and at certain 

 times the bite of the skunk is surely fatal, producing 

 hydrophobia ; and many cowmen, soldiers, and hunters 

 have annually died from this cause. There is no wild 

 beast in the West, no matter what its size and ferocity, 

 so dreaded by old plainsmen as this seemingly harmless 

 little beast. 



I remember one rather ludicrous incident connected 

 with a skunk. A number of us, among whom was a huge, 

 happy-go-lucky Scotchman, who went by the name of 

 Sandy, were sleeping in a hut, when a skunk burrowed 

 under the logs and got in. Hearing it moving about 

 among the tin pans Sandy struck a light, was much taken 

 by the familiarity of the pretty black and white little 

 animal, and, as it seemed in his eyes a curiosity, took 

 a shot at it with his revolver. He missed ; the skunk, 

 for a wonder, retired promptly without taking any notice 

 of the attack ; and the rest of the alarmed sleepers, when 



