1 64 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



mologist and herpetologist whom farmer and scientist may take more kindly 

 into confidence. Among other services done to the agricultural interests of 

 the state, Dr. Warren secured a series of answers from his farmer and 

 naturalist friends as to the economic status of the skunk in Pa. These voice, 

 with notable exceptions, the popular prejudice against this animal entertained 

 by those who never take the time to seek the good side of a disreputable 

 thing; but the experience and testimony of Dr. Merriam and others who 

 have studied this question show that the skunk is the most indefatigable and 

 voracious feeder on all sorts of larger insects, grasshoppers, beetles, cut 

 worms, white grubs, etc., that can be found among the mammalia. The 

 harm they do is chiefly in the line of robbing bird's nests of eggs and young, 

 and the destruction of poultry. As they cannot climb, these depredations 

 are confined to the ground. Skunks fall a prey to foxes, wild cats, weasels, 

 minks and large hawks and owls, but they are generally let alone while less 

 offensive food is obtainable. Their meat is white and well flavored, resem- 

 bling chicken. Their retreats are generally dug in the face of a steep slope, 

 much as those of the woodchuck, whose burrows they sometimes use. 

 Sometimes they use rocky caverns or hollow logs for shelter and breeding. 

 Being prolific, with as many as 8 young in a litter, they increase very fast 

 unless checked by normal conditions. Their furs average about 50 cents 

 each ; black ones as much as $1.50. The bite of a skunk under certain con- 

 ditions has proved fatal, with symptoms like hydrophobia. 



Description of species, All of our skunks are black and white. In general 

 terms the farther north you go the more black they become. But there is a 

 wonderful variety of colors in any part of Pa. and N. J., some of the blackest 

 skins coming from the lower Delaware valley and very light ones from the 

 southern Alleghanies. The standard pattern of color is black with stripes of 

 white more or less wide along the sides and a white stripe from near the nose 

 reaching back between eyes to a half-collar or ruff of white on back of head. 

 The tail is tipped with white. In the blackest specimens the white stripe be- 

 tween the eyes is always present, though often reduced to a mere line or 

 spot. An examination of Howell's definition of the specific differences 

 claimed to exist between the Canadian skunk, Mephitis mephitis, and our Pa. 

 and N. J. animal indicate clearly their non-separability. I have therefore 

 made putida a sub-species or race of mephitis in my classification. As but 

 one form of skunk is to be found in our limits, measurements are unnecessary. 



Genus Gulo Storr, Prodromus Method. Mammalium, 1780, p. 34. 

 Wolverene; Glutton; Carcajou. Gulo luscus (Linnaeus). 

 1766. Ursus luscus Linnaeus, Systema Naturae, vol. i, p. 71. 



