MAMMALIA 



223 



as rodent destroyers and are taking steps to protect them. Some 

 farmers insist that skunks in particular should be protected by law 

 against skin hunters, on account of their value to agriculture. 



Pinnipedia. Seals. All of the above carnivorous fur-bearers 

 belong to the terrestrial group of carnivora. Of the aquatic forms the 



FIG. 143. The beaver, Castor canadensis . 



in Canada.} 



(From Jones, Fur Farming 



fur-seal is the most important and is, perhaps, the best known of all the 



fur-bearing animals, though its fur is so often and so closely imitated 



that most people cannot distinguish the real thing from its imitations. 



The fur-seal, Callorhinus alascanus, Fig. 144, has not only been an 



