CLASS MAMMALS: ORDER CARNIVORA. 



43 



Fig. 52. 



The Mink is brown, with a white spot under the chin. It 

 is semi-digitigrade and semi-palmate (webbed), being thus 

 fitted for hunting in the 

 streams for fish, frogs, etc. 

 The Skunk is striped 

 with black and white ; 

 but individuals of the 

 same species differ in 

 their markings. It emits 

 in self-defence an intoler- 

 able odor, that no othar pMm lutr(blus ^ Mink . iV 

 animal can endure. The 



fore feet are adapted to digging holes, in which it hibernates 

 53. without becoming torpid 



entering its retreat in 

 the fall, fat, and coming 

 out in the spring, lean. 



The Badger, inhabit- 

 ing the northern part of 

 the continent, has long 

 silky hair and short tail. 

 Its stout claws are well 

 adapted for burrowing. 

 Though so peaceable as 

 to resign its nest without a struggle to those much 

 weaker than itself, it can bite more fiercely than any 

 animal of its size. Its skin is so loose and thick, that while 

 the teeth of its assailants can make little impression upon it, 

 the badger can turn itself round in it, so as to bite them in 

 their tenderest parts. It feeds upon small animals, which it 



night, as it devours the brain and sucks the blood, but never eats the flesh of an 

 animal. Its mode of attack is to pounce upon its prey transversely, and piercing the 

 brain at a single bite, to throw itself lengthwise upon the body, to which it clings 

 nntil the death of its victim. Its ability to bend the head at right angles with the 

 neck facilitates this mode of attack Ermine skins have long been used in 

 England to decorate the robes of judicial officers, and hence their association with 

 ideas of moral purity. The expression " catch a weasel asleep" is based upon 

 the ease with which the animal may be caught when sleeping, on account oi the 

 soundness of its slumbers. 



