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apt to wander to a distance that they may hide their nesting 

 place, the Skunli, keen of scent, soon locates the nest and eats 

 the eggs; should the birds be lucky enough to lay their quota 

 and commence setting, of course, the odor is still stronger and 

 the Skunks can scent at a greater distance; they will drive off 

 the birds and eat the eggs, being careful to save the birds 

 that they may keep them supplied with such toothsome food 

 and will not kill "the goose that lays the golden egg," until 

 they see they are not likely to get any more or are driven by 

 excessive hunger to attack the mother bird. This same being 

 true should they come upon the mother bird while with their 

 young they will destroy the young by piecemeal as they will 

 have need, not like the Mink or Weasel, destroy for the blood 

 and leave several dead in a pile. 



HON. F. N. MOORE. North Orwell: 



Skunks are quite plentiful in my locality, but twenty years 

 ago they were much more numerous, and at that time we did 

 not experience the great losses we now sustain in our mead- 

 ows through the ravages of white grubs which are the larvae 

 of the May beetle or tumble-bug. In this region we grow po- 

 tatoes extensively for the eastern markets and experience ma- 

 terial losses to the potato crops as well as to corn by reason 

 of the white grub eating them. These inroads made by the 

 white grub became of such a serious character that it brought 

 out discussion among our farmers at local grange meetings, 

 when it was learned that the potato and corn fields, most ad- 

 jacent to sections where Skunks harbored, were least damaged 

 by these larvae. Observation proved that the Skunks, to get 

 the grubs, dug small round holes in the hills and rows of the 

 potatoes. The testimony of our observing and intelligent farm- 

 ers is that the Skunk is the greatest enemy to these noxious 

 pests, for he not only seeks them in the plowed ground, but 

 will dig for them in the meadow and pasture lands. 



Skunks, as is well-known to every one, will turn over flat 

 stones, pieces of wood, etc., which serve as harboring places 

 for crickets, ants, grasshoppers, army worms, may beetles and 

 other forms of insect life which subsist on the farmer's crops. 

 While it is true the Skunk occasionally wilT visit the hen roost 

 or get under the barn to the dismay of the farmer's dog, and 

 the disgust of the farmer's boy, yet the damage which he does 

 in the poultry yard is light when compared with his beneficent 

 services, rendered in destroying insects, mice and other ver- 

 min which attack the farmer's crops by day and night. The 



