310 NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA [No. 55 



May or June and begin to follow the mothers in July or August 

 while still small. 



Food habits. Skunks are fond of meat, grasshoppers, crickets, 

 beetles, beetle larvae, fly larvae and pupae, ant and hornet larvae, 

 mice, rats, ground squirrels, birds and birds' eggs, frogs and cray- 

 fish, and in fact, practically any small game that they can dig out 

 or catch. Skunks have large stomachs and in times of abundance, 

 as during a grasshopper or cricket year, stuff themselves to the limit 

 on such choice food. They are fond of ripe prunes that have fallen 

 on the ground, and of other fruits and berries, especially blueberries, 

 on which they sometimes gorge themselves. In captivity they will 

 eat a great variety of foods, such as bread, milk, mush, fruit, and 

 berries. 



Economic status. Skunk fur forms an important part of the 

 trapper's harvest each year, and while the price is not high, usually, 

 in recent years, $2 or $3 for prime skins, the abundance of the 

 animals and the ease with which they are caught give them an 

 important place on the list of fur bearers. 



Farmers sometimes complain of damage to their poultry by skunks, 

 but this is rarely serious and in most cases could be easily prevented 

 by giving the poultry a safe place to sleep. The enormous con- 

 sumption of insects, mainly injurious species, and destruction of ro- 

 dent pests, give the skunks an economic value that generally out- 

 weighs their occasional killing of poultry and their local destruction 

 of eggs and young of both poultry and game birds. 



MEPHITIS OCCIDENTALIS SPISSIGRADA BANGS 

 PUGET SOUND SKUNK 



Mephitis spissigrada Bangs, Biol. Soc. Wash. Proc. 12 : 31, 1898. 



Type. Collected at Sumas, British Columbia, by Allan C. Brooks, 1895. 



General characters. Like occidentalis but with broader white stripes and long 

 white hairs usually extending beyond black at tip of tail; skull shorter and 

 broader than in occidentalis. The white stripes generally tinged with cream, 

 buff, or salmon below the surface. 



Measurements. Average of 3 adult males from the type locality : Total length, 

 653 mm; tail, 246; foot, 79; ear (dry), about 24. Females: 625; 235; 75. 

 Weight of a large fat skunk taken by A. J. French, of Carlton, Oregon, 14 

 pounds. 



Distribution and habitat. Puget Sound section of southern British 

 Columbia, western Washington, and south to the coast country of 

 northwestern Oregon (fig. 76). One specimen from McCoy in Polk 

 County seems to be the only substantiated record for Oregon. 



General habits. Not known to differ from those of M. o. occi- 

 dentalis. 



MEPHITIS OCCIDENTALIS NOTATA (HOWELL) 



COLUMBIA VALLEY SKUNK ; APISOUS of the Wasco 



Chincha occidentalis notata Howell, North Amer. Fauna, No. 20, p. 36, 1901. 



Type. Collected at Trout Lake, Skamania County, Wash., by Peter Schmid, 

 1897. 



General characters. Size about as in occidentalis, but tail shorter, white 

 stripes narrower and often incomplete, usually divided to back of neck or 

 back of head ; tail sometimes without long white hairs, but if present reaching 

 to near tip. 



