162 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



pain. I shot the skunk and took the dog to a pond near by, in which he 

 rushed, trying to wash the venom out of his eyes. I let him stay as 

 long as he wanted to, but for a week after his eyes were inflamed, and 

 nearly blind. The odor remained on him over a month. The skunk is 

 a great plague to the farmer, often doing considerable damage in the 

 poultry yard. In seizing its prey it throws itself over and around it, 

 like the weasels, usually biting it at the nape of the neck, or through 

 the skull into the brain. 



In a lot of eleven fowels that I examined, which were killed by a 

 skunk in one night, I found none of them bitten any where except on 

 the head, in some cases the head was eaten off entirely. 



It often trails animals like a dog, and though clumsy and slow in its 

 movements, will perseveringly follow the object of its pursuit until it 

 has driven it to its burrow, where following it in, the whole family is 

 sacrificed to its rapacity ; such is often the case with the common rabbit. 

 (Lepus sylvaticus.) 



The skunk breeds but once in a year, and has from three to seven at 

 a birth. In early winter it retires to its burrow, which is usually in or 

 beneath a ledge of rocks, where it remains sleeping until early in the 

 spring. It is quite poor when it comes forth from its winter sleep. 



Description. — Head small and pointed ; ears small ; eyes small, black 

 and piercing ; body rather slim, although the long fur gives it a robust 

 appearance ; limbs short ; feet strong, the anterior ones provided with 

 long slightly curved claws decidedly fossorial, or adapted to digging ; 

 soles of the feet and toes, which are webbed, naked ; tail long and 

 bushy ; color of the head, body, limbs and tail, black, with the exception 

 of a nari'ow stripe of Avhite running along the top of the head, about an 

 inch and a quarter long, a patch of white commencing at the nape of 

 the neck, running back to between the shoulders, where it separates in 

 the form of the letter V, the diverging points extending about half the 

 length of the body ; and the end of the tail, which is white, and slightly 

 tufted. These white markings vary considerably, no two specimens 

 being exactly alike. Length of head, 2}^ inches, width, 1 f inches ; 

 length of head and body, 17 inches; length of tail, not including the 

 hairs at the tip, 9 inches, including the hairs, 13^ inches; length of 

 hind foot, 2^ inches. 



Family: Ursid^e. — (Bear Family.) 



Characteristics. — Incisors, six in each jaw ; canines, two in each jaw ; 

 pre-molars, eight in each jaw ; molars, tuberculated, four in the upper and 

 generally six in the lower jaw ; nose somewhat elongated and movable ; 

 body strong ; limbs strong ; feet five toed ; walk plantigrade ; toes dis- 



