INTRODUCING MR. AND MRS. SKUNK 45 



never ask questions too quickly, and this time 

 there was no opportunity. 



As I rounded the trees there before me were 

 two fighting skunks being separated by the 

 trapper. Both turned on him for separating 

 them; but he was into the tent -fly and nearly 

 out of range. Again they were at grips and 

 were biting, clawing, and rolling about when the 

 trapper rushed in, caught his shoe beneath them, 

 and with a leg swing threw them hurtling 

 through the air. They dropped splash into the 

 brook. They separated and swam out to dif- 

 ferent sides of the brook. 



The following day a skunk came out of the 

 woods below camp and fed along the brook in 

 the willows, then out across an opening. I 

 watched him for an hour or longer. 



At first I thought him a youngster and started 

 to get close to him. But while still at safe range 

 I looked at him through my field glasses and 

 remained at a distance. Yet I am satisfied that 

 he was a youngster, for he allowed a beetle to 

 pinch his nose, ants were swarming all over him 

 before he ceased digging in an ant hill, and a 

 mouse he caught bit his foot. 



He dug and ate beetles, ants, grubs from 

 among the grass roots, found a stale mouse, 

 claimed grubs from alongside a stump, and con- 

 sumed a whole cluster of caterpillars. Then he 



