242 TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



turns white. The utility of this persistence to the 

 animal itself is problematical. It is certainly the cause 

 of its persistent pursuit by man. One most curious mem- 

 ber of the weasel tribe is the skunk (Fig. 67), an animal 

 conspicuously marked with black and white, and with a 

 long tail handsomely clothed with abundant fine hair. 

 The common skunk ranges from Hudson's Bay to 

 Guatemala. It preys on small beasts, birds, and 

 reptiles, but especially on insects and mice. As to this 

 animal A. R. Wallace tells us that while staying a few 

 days in July, 1887, at the Summit Hotel on the Central 

 Pacific Railway, he strolled out one evening after dinner, 

 and on the road, not fifty yards from the house, he saw 

 a pretty little white and black animal with a bushy tail 

 coming toward him. As it came on at a slow pace and 

 without any fear, although it evidently saw him, he 

 thought at first that it must be some tame creature, 

 when it suddenly occurred to him that it was a skunk. 

 It came on till within five or six yards of him, then quietly 

 climbed over a dwarf wall and disappeared under a small 

 outhouse, in search of chickens, as the landlord afterwards 

 told him. As is well known, the skunk possesses the 

 power of ejecting a most offensive secretion, and this 

 effectually protects it from attack. The odour of the 

 substance is so penetrating that it taints and renders 

 useless everything it touches. Provisions even near it 

 become uneatable, although the skunk's own flesh is white, 

 and sweet, and even said to be delicious eating. Clothes 

 saturated with it will retain the smell for several weeks, 

 even though they are repeatedly washed and dried. A 

 drop of the liquid in the eyes will cause blindness, and 

 Indians are said not infrequently to lose their sight 

 from this cause. Owing to such a remarkable power of 

 offence, the skunk is rarely attacked by other animals, 



