(Continued from January issue.) 



The badger may be mentioned here as a flesh-eater with 

 skin of little worth as fur, though utilized to some extent as 

 leather. An habitual burrower, a very powerful and rapid 

 digger, it finds in field-mice, ground-squirrels and the like, its 

 chief food. It is one of our highly beneficial mammals which 

 is too frequently killed without cause. 



In the skunk we have an animal deserving more than the 

 portion usually accorded it. Modest and retiring of disposi- 

 tion and desiring only that it may pass unnoticed, yet pos- 

 sessed of instruments of defense with which on occasion of 

 need it is able to surround its person with an atmosphere of 

 defiance effective towards all but its most determined foes, it 

 goes about its business deliberately and methodically. As it 

 works at night its presence in the neighborhood and its good 

 offices alike remain unnoticed until through some accident or 

 mistake its arrival in the locality becomes insinuated. Its 

 handsome, durable fur, which has risen in price and may even 

 pass under its own name, has placed this animal on the list 

 of our most important fur-bearers, the more so as it is one of 

 the most successful in maintaining its hold against natural 

 enemies, is prolific, and readily establishes its abode in agri- 

 cultural and other settled districts. 



It may not be generally known that the chief food of skunks, 

 both of our larger Northern species and of the small spotted 

 skunk or civet-cat, which is a more Southern animal that 

 appears to be extending its range and enters the southern 

 part of the state, is insects, x such as grass-hoppers, crickets, 

 beetles and grubs; and next in importance come mice of vari- 

 ous kinds. This has been proved by examination of the stom- 

 ach contents of numerous skunks, in the biological survey's 

 investigations, and may be verified in the same way by any- 

 one sufficiently interested. Having lived the greater part of 

 my life on a farm in the extreme northwest of this state, 



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