AMERICAN BADGER — SKUNKS 343 



sheep, and are particularly partial to pigs. The white Gribble Island bear is 

 referred to in the preceding chapter. 



American The American badger (Taxidea americana), the only repre- 



Badger. sentative of its genus, is characterised by the great width of the 

 hind part of the skull, the depressed body, which measures about 2 feet in length, 

 and the short tail, with a length of barely 6 inches. The cheek-teeth differ from those 

 of the typical badgers of the Old World by the large size of the flesh-tooth in the 

 upper jaw, and the long heel of the corresponding lower tooth. The fore-feet are 

 disproportionately large, the eyes are very small, the blunt and somewhat crooked 

 muzzle is haired down to the nostrils, and the short, broad, and rounded ears are 

 remarkable for the size of their apertures. In colour the American badger, of 

 which three local races are recognised, is hoary brown or greyish above, with the 

 under-parts and legs blackish brown. The head, which is a little darker than the 

 rest of the body, is marked with a white line down the middle, and a white patch 

 on each cheek, divided by a dark stripe. This badger ranges from Canada into 

 Mexico, where it is represented by a race (T. a. borlandieri) characterised by a 

 white stripe on the back. 



Like its relative in Europe, the American badger is an exclusively nocturnal 

 animal, seldom seen in the daytime ; on the upper Missouri and its tributaries it 

 is so common that large tracts are undermined by its burrows, which may be dis- 

 tinguished from those of the equally numerous prairie-marmots by the absence of 

 the small mounds surrounding the entrances. The badger kills and devours 

 numbers of these marmots, as well as other small mammals, insects, snails, birds, 

 eggs, and honey. In the colder parts of its habitat this badger hibernates from 

 October till April. 



Allied to the badgers are the skunks, a group confined to America, 

 Skunks. a . . 



and distinguished by the large bushy tail, generally carried over the 



back, and by the black-and-white coloration, in which the white is confined to 



longitudinal bands of variable width on the back. The members of this noisome 



group are split up into three genera, in the two first of which there are thirty-four 



teeth. The typical representative of the group, the common skunk {Mephitis 



mephitica), inhabits North and Central America from Hudson Bay to Louisiana and 



Virginia, the Hudson Bay and the Mississippi forms being regarded as distinct 



local races. Other forms, recognised as species, carry the genus as far south as 



Guatemala. An ordinary skunk is about the size of a short-legged Persian cat, 



and is a strongly built, small-headed animal, with a bushy tail almost as long as 



the body, if the hairs at the tip be included. The long-tailed skunk (M. macrura) 



of Mexico is distinguished by a longer and bushier tail, which in all cases equals 



the body in length. The lesser skunks, as typified by Spilogale putorius, are very 



different animals, inhabiting; the southern United States and Central America, and 



not exceeding a foot in length. Typically the tail is shorter than the body, and 



the back marked with white spots and four interrupted white stripes, while the 



tail ends in a white tip. 



Unlike the typical skunks, which are ground-animals, the lesser skunks are 



active climbers. All skunks have the habit, when attacked or irritated in any way, 



of ejecting an evil-smelling fluid secreted by two glands beneath their tail. Few 



