312 



NORTH AMERICAN FAUNA 



[No. 55 



fur is always of sufficient value to keep their numbers reduced to a 

 harmless minimum without any expense for artificial means of 

 control. On the whole this skunk is thus a valuable animal, from 

 both the economic and commercial viewpoints. 



SPILOGALB GRACILIS SAXATILIS MERRIAM 



GREAT BASIN SPOTTED SKUNK ; HYDROPHOBIA SKUNK ; PHOBY CAT ; CIVET CAT ; 

 CIVET; WApoiApfsNA of the Piute at Burns 



Spilogale saxatilis Merriam, North Amer. Fauna No. 4, p. 13, 1890. 



Type. Collected at Prove, Utah, by Vernon Bailey, November 13, 1888. 



General characters. A slender, graceful little skunk, with short legs ; plan- 

 tigrade feet ; naked soles ; climbing claws ; short rounded ears ; a large plume- 

 like tail (pi. 44, A) ; and a weasellike expression of face; fur very soft and 

 full when prime, and colors dazzling in their intricate pattern of black and 

 white. Scent glands almost as highly developed as in Mephitis, and used in the 

 same way in self defense. Color, clear black, or sooty black all over except 

 four white shoulder stripes and two side stripes ; a white spot on forehead and 

 one on each cheek; eight white spots on rump and a large white tip to the 

 tail, including half its length. Pattern the same at all ages and seasons. 



Measurements. Average of 2 males from type locality: Total length, 436 

 mm; tail, 170; foot, 47; ear (dry), about 20. Average of three females from 

 Oregon: 360; 129; 40. 



Distribution and habitat. The Great Basin area from Utah and 

 Colorado through northern Nevada and southern Idaho to north- 

 eastern California, Ore- 

 gon, east of the Cascades, 

 and southeastern Wash- 

 ington in Upper Sonoran 

 Zone (fig. 77). 



General habits. These 

 beautiful little spotted 

 weasel skunks are more or 

 less wanderers in their 

 desert range, along the 

 lines of cliffs, canyons, and 

 rimrocks, or in the arid 

 valleys of eastern Oregon 

 in the broken and cavern- 

 ous lava fields. There is 

 some doubt as to whether 

 they follow the cliffs and 

 canyons for shelter and 

 protection, or merely because these are also favorite haunts of numer- 

 ous small rodents and many forms of insect life on which they prey. 

 They are great climbers, both among the rocks and in trees and bushes, 

 and seem to be able to capture the most active of the small rodents, 

 many of which are also good climbers. They often take up tempo- 

 rary residence about barns, sheds, or even under houses where, if 

 unmolested, they do good work in destruction of rats, mice, insects, 

 and reptiles. They are so fully nocturnal as to be little noticed, 

 even when living under the doorstep of a dwelling. At the warden's 

 cabin near Malheur Lake, one lived under the house and came out at 

 night and ate up some of the meadow mice from a box where they 

 were kept under the window for study and ate part of a prairie f al- 



FIGURE 77. Range of the two forms of little 

 skunks in Oregon : 1, 

 2, 8. gracilis saxatilis. 



)tted 



skunks in Oregon : 1, Spilogale phenax latifrons; 

 Type locality circled. 



