1936] MAMMALS OF OKEGON 313 



con that had been shot for a specimen. An inverted soap box was 

 set on the steps with a trigger under one edge, baited with meat, 

 which the skunk smelled and tried to get as soon as the writer turned 

 away. A large gunny sack was slipped under and over the box and 

 the little skunk transferred to it ; the sack was dropped gently into 

 a tin can and carried out to the middle of a clean pasture, where the 

 skunk was released and photographed as it ran, sometimes away 

 from and sometimes toward the writer. It was no trouble to keep 

 near the animal and take pictures at a 6-foot focal distance. 

 Through all this unusual excitement the skunk did not throw its 

 scent or become unpleasant in any way, except that while under the 

 box it would stamp its feet in a fury. The next night it was back 

 under the house and in response to friendly advances only stamped 

 its feet in a threating manner. It seemed able to express much of its 

 feelings in various forms of stamping with both front feet at once. 



At the next cabin out in the sagebrush valley one was caught at 

 the side of the house, under a tin can set for wood rats. At the ranch 

 beyond, a dog was kept and there were none of these interesting little 

 animals about. 



In 1915 Jewett found one prowling about his room at night on the 

 Hay Creek ranch. When the light was turned on it showed no alarm 

 but continued its search until it found the bodies of three birds that 

 had been skinned for specimens the day before. These were quickly 

 appropriated and carried under a box to be eaten at leisure. 



Other specimens of these little skunks were obtained along the 

 canyon of the Deschutes River by using the bodies of birds for bait, 

 but at that time the animals had become scarce through years of 

 persistent trapping for fur. The collector gets more of these animals 

 in traps set for wood rats than in any other way, as they are always 

 hunting for and following the runways of these rodents, but they are 

 also attracted to any traps baited with meat and set for other skunks, 

 foxes, coyotes, bobcats, or mink. 



They have a pair of scent glands, arranged as in the large skunks 

 at the sides of the anus and operated by surrounding bands of muscle 

 that on contraction force two streams of powerfully pungent amber 

 liquid to a distance of 10 or 12 feet. Its odor is scarcely distinguish- 

 able from that of Mephitis, but when not too strong has a little sug- 

 gestion of the red-fox odor. It is used only in self-defense, and 

 then only as a last resort when escape seems hopeless. When the 

 animal is killed by a sharp blow across the back the rear muscles are 

 mralyzed and no scent is thrown, or if an ounce of carbon bisulphide 

 >r gasoline is poured into a small box or burrow where they are, they 

 soon become unconscious without ejecting their fluid and may be 

 handled freely without unpleasant results or kept under the influence 

 of it until the heart has ceased to beat. Ether can be used in the same 

 way but does not result in death unless its application is long 

 continued. 



The popular belief that the bite of these little skunks will always 

 produce hydrophobia has no foundation in fact. These and other 

 skunks, as well as dogs, coyotes, and other animals, may convey the 

 disease when they have contracted it, but at no other time, and there 

 are very few authentic records of hydrophobia following the bite of 

 iks. 



