308 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 



[No. 55 



as rare as the marten and fisher if they are not given better protection 

 than fur bearers usually get. Raising choice light-colored badgers 

 for fur has proved a successful enterprise in some parts of the country 

 and will perhaps be developed into a real industry. 



MEPHITIS OCCIDENTALS OCCIDENTALS BAIBD 

 CALIFORNIA SKUNK; CHAW-SIS of the Klainath (C. H. M.) 



Mephitis occidental^ Baird, Mamm. North Amer., p. 194, 1857. 



Type. Not designated; description based on two specimens from Sonoma 

 County, Calif. ; collected by E. Samuels in 1856 or earlier. 



General characters. About the size of a house cat, with heavy body, short 

 legs, a large bushy tail, short ears, pointed nose, and small eyes; feet fully 

 plantigrade, with naked soles and long front claws for digging ; teeth 16 above 

 and 18 below ; fur full and soft with long, coarse guard hairs ; a pair of large 

 glandular musk sacs at the sides of the anus, surrounded by a broad band of 

 muscle that may be contracted, forcing fine streams of amber liquid of powerful 

 odor through two nipplelike ducts at the edge of the anus. Color, fur dark 

 brown and outer hairs black all over except a narrow white stripe through fore- 

 head, a broad white band from top of head to shoulders, then dividing along 

 sides of back and tail, and meeting across top of tail near the middle, leaving 

 the tip of tail black ; long tail hairs white at base, mostly with long black tips ; 

 the white hairs of nape, back, and tail longer than the black hairs and forming 

 a sort of crest. White often tinged with creamy buff or salmon; pattern the 

 same at all seasons and ages, but with varying proportions of white. 



Measurements. Average of adult males from type region: Total length, 

 693 mm; tail, 303; foot, 78; ear (dry), about 20. Females slightly smaller. 

 Grinnell and Storer give the weight as 3% to 8% pounds, but large fat indi- 

 viduals may probably run even higher. 



Distribution and habitat. California and Oregon valley country, 

 west of the Sierra Nevada, and the Cascades from the vicinity of 

 Monterey Bay north to the Willamette Valley, in mainly Upper 

 Sonoran and Transition Zones (fig. 76). Although valley rather than 



mountain animals, they 



in places go well up into 

 foothills and high valleys. 

 They generallypreferopen 

 country with brush land 

 and wood lots but some- 

 times penetrate well into 

 partially timbered re- 

 gions. In southern Ore- 

 gon this form reaches to 

 the coast, but in the north- 

 western part of the State 

 it gives place to the 

 broader striped Puget 



FIGURE 76. Range of four forms of the common Qrmnrl cL-nnlr 



skunks in Oregon : 1, Mephitis occidentals occiden- ou J K UI1K. 



talis; 2, M. o. spissifjrada ; 3, M. p. major; 4, M. o. General habit S. Skunks 



notata. Type locality circled. ,. , 



are entirely ground dwell- 

 ers and great diggers, depending on their long, strong claws not only 

 for digging out much of their food but for construction of numerous 

 deep burrows in which they generally make their homes. In places 

 they live under or among the rocks, in small caves, or even in hollow 



