Skunk 
Catching grasshoppers in the hot sunshine of mid-summer is 
not by any means an easy task, but by moonlight or the early 
gray of the morning while the grass is heavy with dew it is 
more like picking strawberries than hunting. 
As the season wears on the nights grow longer and the 
dew heavier, while the grasshoppers and crickets get bigger and 
more sluggish. By the last of October the skunks go rolling 
and tottering about on feet that are apparently much too small and 
much too close together to support them comfortably, the creature’s 
anatomical structure being still like that of the other weasels 
and scarcely fitted for carrying such a load of fat with ease and 
dignity. 
By the time the supply of insect food comes to an end the 
skunk finds himself quite unfitted to engage in more active 
hunting, so he proceeds to look up a suitable underground 
retreat in which to pass the winter. If his summer home has 
been in the woods, then the same burrow which he has been 
occupying is all that is required; and if, as is usually the case, 
he is still living with his family, numbering perhaps six or eight 
members, they all turn in together and sleep for weeks or even 
months. 
Those that have passed the warm season in the open, 
where the ground freezes too deeply to be comfortable in winter, are 
under the necessity of looking up lodgings in the woods before 
the snow comes. 
It often happens that such a family will hit upon a_ hole 
already occupied, and the two families, aggregating a dozen or 
more individuals, will pass the cold season together in perfect 
harmony. 
The original occupants, if they are sufficiently awake to 
realize anything, are probably glad of the additional warmth 
contributed by the new comers. 
Skunks are easily the most abundant of all our carni- 
vora, yet I have never seen more than five or six, all told, out 
of their own accord in the daytime. In the evening, particu- 
larly in warm weather, it is common enough to see them 
moving about in the uncertain light with the leisurely, unhurried 
manner which they usually affect. 
Generally there are very few skunks awake in December 
and January. In some seasons | have tramped the woods daily 
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