88 MASSACHUSETTS AGRICULTURE. 



torpid. The burrow is formed with a chamber raised and with 

 several passages leading to it, and usually is beneath a rock or 

 a stone wall. In spring, and while the animal is active, it is 

 caught in steel traps which are placed in the mouth of its bur- 

 row and covered with loose earth. Recourse is also had Ho 

 poisoning ; and stifling in the burrows has also been practised, 

 although generally with poor success, unless all the exits and 

 entrances are discovered and closed. The best mode of destroy- 

 ing the animal that we know of is to place a quantity of gun- 

 powder, enclosed in a paper bag, in the burrow, attach a fuse 

 or slow match to it, close the burrow with earth, which should 

 be tamped hard, and ignite the fuse. The explosion is fatal to 

 the woodchuck, and the whole family, often, is exterminated. 



The skunk is also regarded in most localities as a nuisance 

 and a pest. "We have, we confess, been undecided as to whether 

 the amount of evil it does more than balances the benefits that 

 it renders, and have often advocated its protection. The amount 

 of benefits received is not always appreciated or even recognized ; 

 the evil done one is always apparent. We know that the skunk 

 destroys great numbers of field-mice, and is always active in 

 pursuit of the insects which abound in our cultivated fields. 

 But we also know that it devours without hesitation every 

 young bird and egg that it can find ; and, taking into account 

 the amount of good each one of its victims might have done, 

 we fear we must deny the animal the benefit of a doubt con- 

 cerning its value. In succeeding pages, as the benefits which 

 a single bird may render in one season appear, the destruction 

 of it cannot but be deprecated, and an animal whose whole life 

 is mostly devoted to the slaughter of such friends can be re- 

 garded only as an enemy. 



However, the well-known peculiarity of the skunk will always 

 render it an object of disgust and hatred to the community ; and 

 if volumes were written in its defence, and advancing its real 

 or supposed good qualities, the popular prejudice would prevail 

 and the destruction of the animal would, as it is now, be se- 

 cured on every occasion. The skunk is generally nocturnal, 

 rarely venturing abroad during the daytime, but remaining 

 quiet in his burrow in a ledge of rocks or beneath a stone 

 wall, or perhaps in the burrow of a woodchuck, the owner 

 having fallen a victim to the skunk's appetite. At early even- 



