rixgle] THE ODORIFEROUS SKUNK 15 



employs it for self-protection only, never by way of aggression. 

 The fact is, he is a valuable animal and merits consideration. 



Even- farmer ought to keep at least one skunk. His granaries 

 and barns would not be infested then by rats and mice. The large 

 loss these rodents cause would be wholly stopped, for they have no 

 more relentless enemy than the skunk. If the skunk chances to 

 take up its abode in a barn, it will, if not disturbed, remain there 

 until every r rat and mouse is devoured. 



Nor does this mean that the barn will be pervaded meantime by 

 the animal's odor. In all probability, its presence will never be 

 perceptible to the nostrils. It will rarely be seen, for that matter, 

 for it sleeps through the day and gains its food by night. 



If the farmer should object to having a stray skunk about, it is 

 entirely practicable for him to take and tame the young ones of a 

 litter. They make pretty pets, are cleanly in their habits, and do 

 not emit their stench unless provoked. 



Chooses Diet of Rats and Mice 

 But its liking for a diet of rats and mice only begins to tell the 

 worth of the skunk to the farmer. It preys upon a number of other 

 pests that trouble him the most. Grasshoppers, beetles and their 

 larvae, the white grubs that in so many parts of the country destroy 

 lawns and meadows, tomato worms, tobacco worms, ground 

 squirrels and pocket gophers, are staples on his bill of fare. The 

 army worm knows no worse enemy. When grasshoppers are 

 abundant, it makes them its chief food. Other things the skunk 

 likes to eat, but which do not concern the farmer so much, are 

 reptiles, crickets, earthworms, crayfish and centipedes. 



It is true that the skunk sometimes feasts on chicken. But 

 minks and weasels are generally to blame for that which is laid at 

 the door of the skunk. They only suck the blood of their victims. 

 Then the skunk happens along, begins to feed on the flesh, and is 

 caught in the act by the owner of the hen roost. The common 

 skunk cannot climb a roost and most members of the species do not 

 know the taste of chicken flesh. But in instances to the contrary, 

 "the skunk," according to one observer, "more than balances his 

 debt for corn and chickens by his destruction of obnoxious vermin." 

 The word "skunk" is a contraction of "seganku," which was the 

 name the Indians gave the animal. The skunk is a member of the 

 weasel family and is found in North America only, although there 



