343 



James Harbison tells me that he caught a Polecat destroying 

 a nest of eggs of Quail that was just ready to hatch out. The 

 Groundhog will do the same. 



BRAUFOKD COUNTY. 



E. M. ANGLE, Potterville: 



Skunks are destructive to Rabbits, Pheasants and Quail. I 

 have known them, with the Red Fox, to be the most destructive 

 to the above-mentioned game. Proof — localities where the 

 Skunk and Fox are nearly extinct you will find said game in 

 plenty and vice versa. They are also injurious to the farmer's 

 fields; in the absence of game, poultry, etc., they will take to 

 the meadows and pastures and if the land be sidehill or slop- 

 ing will commence at the lower side and turn over every 

 movable stone that is not too large for their strength, in search 

 of ants, tumble-bugs, eggs and crickets, and some certain grubs 

 and worms. This, some may say, is beneficial; if so. the damage 

 done is so much greater than the little good, that the good sinks 

 into insignificance. I had a meadow of about three acres 

 sloping to the northeast about two years) ago, well seeded to 

 timothy and clover, and when mowed of a splendid stand; di- 

 rectly after mowing they commenced in the aforesaid way 

 at the bottom and turned the stones over a few rods of ground 

 every night (for like all evil doers they work at night) until 

 they reached the top; by that time there had accumulated the 

 same food under the stones again and they would overturn 

 every stone, placing the stone on new grass after having left 

 it just long enough to kill the graFS where it lay, the sun. wind, 

 and covering having destroyed the grass until the field was 

 ruined until taken up and newly seeded. Having witnessed the 

 aforesaid charges against this animal I have no hesitation in 

 saying they are one of the farmer's foes. Yes, sir, they are 

 worse than a mortgage on your farm drawing compound inter- 

 est, for they increase faster and in a greater ratio, and I am 

 in favor of a light bounty, say. with the present price of furs, 

 twenty-five cents per head, but please don't give a larger one 

 to the justice unless the law be so amended that the said jus- 

 tice of the peace must skin the^m. 



I consider the Skunk very injurious for the following reasons: 

 In localities where farmers do not have good protection for 

 their poultry they will destroy both old and young that roost 

 low enough for Fhem to reach. They are cunning fellows and 

 show great wisdom. If a young turkey or guinea fowl are 



