98 BULLETIN NO. VII. 



Two summers ago I was the happy master of the cleverest 

 young skunk that I have thus far chanced to meet. For a 

 name he received the title of his genus, and we called him 

 * Meph. ' for short. By way of precaution, I removed his scent 

 sacs, and he made a rapid and complete recovery, after a few 

 days of temporary indisposition. While driving about the 

 country, in the performance of professional duties, he usually 

 slept in my pocket. After supper I commonly took a walk, and 

 he always followed close at my heels. If I chanced to walk too 

 fast for him, he would scold and stamp with his fore-feet, and 

 if j I persisted in keeping too far ahead, would turn about dis- 

 gusted, and make off in an opposite direction, but if I stopped 

 and called him, he would hurry along at a sort of ambling 

 pace, and soon overtake me. He was particularly fond of 

 ladies, and I think it was the dress that attracted him ; but be 

 that as it may, he would invariably leave me to follow any lady 

 that chanced to come near. We used to walk through the 

 woods to a large meadow that abounded in grasshoppers. 

 Here 'Meph.' would fairly revel in his favorite food, and it was, 

 rich sport to watch his manoeuvres. When a grasshopper 

 jumped he jumped, and I have seen him with as many as three 

 in his mouth and two under his fore-paws at one time ! He 

 would eat so many that his over - extended belly actually 

 dragged upon the. ground, and, when so full that he could hold 

 no more, would still catch and slay them. When so small that 

 he could hardly toddle about he never hesitated to tackle the 

 large and powerful beetle known as the horned bug, and got 

 many smart nips for his audacity. But he was a courageous 

 little fellow and it was not long before he learned to handle 

 them with impunity. Ere many weeks he ventured to attack a 

 mouse, and the ferocity displayed in its destruction was truly 

 astonishing. He devoured the entire body of his victim, and 

 growled and stamped his feet if any one came near before the 

 repast was over." 



P. 421 Carver's Travels : 



4 ' THE SKUNK. This is the most extraordinary animal that 

 the American woods produce. It lives chiefly in the woods 

 and hedges. But its extraordinary powers are only shewn 

 when it is pursued. As soon as he finds himself in danger he 

 ejects to a great distance a small stream of water of so subtile 

 a nature, and at the same time of so powerful a smell, that the 

 air is tainted with it for half a mile in circumference. On this 



