Little Striped Skunk 
Little Striped Skunk 
Spilogale ambarvalis (Bangs) 
Length. 1 foot 3 inches. 
Description. A diminutive of the common skunk, with a differ- 
ent colour pattern. Black, with a broad white patch on the 
forehead, a crescent before each ear and four parallel stripes 
on the back, interrupted and broken behind. Tail black with 
a terminal tuft of white hairs. 
Range. Florida; local and most common on the eastern penin- 
sula. In Mississippi, Alabama and Western Georgia north to 
West Virginia occurs a somewhat larger variety, with the 
white markings much reduced—the Eastern striped skunk, 
S. ringens (Merriam). Others occur in the West. 
These little skunks have much the same habits as their 
larger brothers, possessing the same attractive appearance and the 
same ability to make their presence extremely disagreeable. 
American Badger 
Taxidea taxus (Schreber) 
Length. 27 inches. 
Description. Body rather thick set and flat, feet rather short, 
claws on fore feet very large, tail short. Colour, grayish, 
mottled with black on the back in irregular transverse 
bands; tail gray; lower parts dirty white; centre of face 
black, including the eyes and region just above them; a white 
median stripe from the nape nearly to the snout; sides’ of 
face and throat white; a large black patch in front of each 
ear. Legs and feet black. 
Range. Western North America, east to Wisconsin and Texas— 
formerly to Ohio. 
This flat, thick-hided, long-haired creature differs from _ its 
long-suffering European cousin chiefly in its more carnivorous 
diet, and in preferring wide-stretching flatlands to dark forests, 
such as the Old World badger loves to hide in. 
But if badgering and badger-baiting had ever been popular 
in this country, our species would unquestionably have put up 
as invincible a defence against the dogs urged on to torture it 
as ever badger did, its skin being equally tough and its jaws 
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