NATURE LORE 



I even get reconciled to the unsavory but gentle- 

 mannered skunk. He does not disturb me if I do 

 not disturb him, and if he chances to get into a trap 

 which I have set for some other animal, his compo- 

 sure is great, and he looks the injured innocent that 

 he is. Only I must keep my eye upon that tail when 

 it starts to rise over his back. There is a masked 

 battery there the noiseless shot of which is usually 

 well aimed, and is pretty sure to rout the foe whether 

 it hit the mark or not. Last summer the morning 

 light revealed one held by the leg in a steel trap 

 which I had set for rats that were helping them- 

 selves too freely to my roasting-ears. How sorry and 

 deprecatory he looked as I approached, slowly 

 straining to pull away from the cruel trap, and 

 turning upon me a half -appealing, half -reproachful 

 look ! By imitating his slow, gentle manners, I lifted 

 him and the trap to the mouth of a woodchuck hole, 

 into which he quickly crept, leaving his trap-held 

 foot outside. To release him then was an easy 

 matter. 



The skunk is a night prowler, and subsists mainly 

 upon insects and small rodents; but I would not 

 insure the birds* eggs or the young birds that hap- 

 pen to be in his path, though Mr. Seton says his 

 tame skunks do not know how to deal with hen's 

 eggs. 



There is no prettier bit of natural history upon 

 four legs than the red fox, especially when you sur- 



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