MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA. 95 



course. Every country boy has had his more or less mem- 

 orable encounter with the animal in question. A sort of legen- 

 dary terror adds imagined danger to such escapades, for in 

 reality one has but to behave as composedly as the Mephitis 

 certainly will, to escape discomfiture. If it be really necessary 

 to remove such a neighbor, it is easy to take him in a trap set 

 at the mouth of the burrow, though it then becomes a question 

 how to dispose of the prize. A well directed charge of shot is 

 perhaps the surest way to avoid unpleasant consequences. 

 When taken in a trap, however, a skillful person can safely 

 administer a quietus with a staff, by striking, upon the head, 

 especially if the foot is placed upon the tail. A properly con- 

 structed' "deadfall" is a convenient way of at once trapping 

 and killing the animal. If, for any reason, firearms are un- 

 available, the animal when trapped may be disposed of as sug- 

 gested by C. L. Whitman in The Forest and Stream, 1876. 



"My favorite method of dealing with them is as follows: 

 With a tough annealed No. 15 or 16 iron wire I form a slip-, 

 noose about five inches in diameter and a standing loop of two 

 inches on the other, and a space of five inches between. The 

 loop is attached to the smaller end of a light, stiff pole of eight 

 or ten feet in length. With this firmly grasped in both hands, 

 I slowly and carefully approach, and slip the noose over his 

 head, and with a quick jerk backwards and upwards, lift him 

 as high as the chain of the trap will allow, and thus hold him 

 until he is strangled. ... If the jerk upward has not been 

 adroitly made, the wire may not draw as tight as it ought ; in 

 which case a discharge of the pungent odor will usually f ollow s 

 but in this perpendicular position the discharge descends 

 directly downwards, so that if the attack has been made from 

 the windward, as it ought, there is no danger. The approach 

 is sometimes resented at first, but the gradual arching of the 

 tail gives timely warning, and a careful retreat is necessary 

 for a moment. The second or third attempt is successful. The 

 animal by that time recovers from the alarm, and at most will 

 merely sniff the air in your direction. With this device I have 

 destroyed many hundred during the past thirty years, and do 

 not recollect an instance where I bore any of the odor about 

 me, except I had inadvertently trod upon dirt that was defiled." 



We pass to description of the external appearance and color- 

 ation. The coloration is the point which first attracts atten- 

 tion, and is sufficiently characteristic that there need never be 

 any hesitation in referring the animal to this genus. The 



