1936] MAMMALS OF OREGON 311 



Measurements. Average of adult males from type locality : Total length, 633 

 mm ; tail, 249 ; foot, 76. Of adult females : 659 ; 286 ; 69. 



Distribution and habitat. This well-marked but restricted form 

 occupies the Columbia River Valley from the south base of Mount 

 Adams eastward on both sides of the river to near the Great Bend. 

 On the Oregon side specimens are referred to it from The Dalles, 

 from Millers (near the mouth of the Deschutes), Willows, Umatilla, 

 and Lena, all in semi arid Upper Sonoran Zone of the Columbia River 

 Basin (fig. 76) . The name " Cascade skunk ", which has been applied 

 to it, is misleading as its range is entirely in the Columbia Valley, 

 east of the Cascades. 



MEPHITIS OCCIDENTALS MAJOR (HOWELL) 

 GBEAT BASIN SKUNK ; PooNticHE of the Piute at Burns 



Chincha occidental^ major Howell, North Amer. Fauna, No. 20, p. 37, 1901. 



Type. Collected at Fort Klamath, Oreg., by B. L. Cunningham, January 5, 

 1898. 



General characters. Size slightly larger than Occident alts ; underfur darker 

 brown and outer hairs more shiny black; white stripes pure white, dividing 

 nearer to neck and continuous along sides of back and tail and across top 

 of tail well back of black tip. 



Measurements. Average of 5 adult males from type locality: Total length, 

 705 mm ; tail, 306 ; foot, 84. 



Distribution <md habitat. The Great Basin skunks occupy the 

 desert region from Utah, Nevada, and northeastern California to 

 eastern Oregon, southeastern Washington, and southern Idaho (fig. 

 76). They cover most of Oregon east of the Cascades in Upper 

 Sonoran and Transition Zones, and all of the low country except 

 the immediate valley of the Columbia River. 



General habits. In adaptation to arid and open environment 

 these big skunks of the Great Basin area are mainly restricted to 

 the vicinity of streams, lakes, canyons, or areas where water and 

 cover are to be found, and where insects and small rodents or birds 

 are abundant. The skunks often travel long distances in roads or 

 trails, but never beyond reach of water and cover ; consequently they 

 are not found over wide spaces of desert country, but often rather 

 abundant in restricted areas. In canyons or along cliffs they live 

 under or among rock masses, or burrow in the dense growth of 

 weeds and bushes near the rocks. Near lake shores they will bur- 

 row anywhere within reach of the tule-bordered breeding grounds 

 of water birds or mouse-infested meadows. In a mouse year they 

 gather about the fields and feast on meadow mice. In a grasshopper 

 year or a cricket year they fatten on these wholesome and nutritious 

 insects ; in a rabbit or ground-squirrel year they aid in keeping down 

 the surplus, capturing the young or even pulling down the sick 

 jack rabbits in times of epidemic. On the breeding grounds of water- 

 birds around some of the great tule-bordered lakes of eastern Oregon, 

 they are a possible source of danger to eggs and young, and in some 

 cases are evidently responsible for some broken eggs and small 

 broods of young ducks. This, the most serious mischief of which 

 skunks are sometimes convicted, is, however, almost wholly pre- 

 ventable by allowing or encouraging more thorough trapping in 

 areas where they are likely to prove destructive. Fortunately their 



