Mammal Study 249 



the skunk ever hurry? Is it afraid? How does it protect itself from its 

 enemies? Do you think that the skunk's freedom from fear has rendered 

 the animal less intelligent? 



4. At what time do the skunk kittens appear? Have you ever seen 

 little skunks playing ? If so, describe their antics. How is the nest made 

 soft for the young ones ? 



5. How does the skunk benefit farmers? Does it ever do them any 

 injury? Do you think that it does more good than harm? 



6. Describe the skunk's track as follows: How many toes show in 

 the track? Does the palm or heel show? Are the tracks near together? 

 Do they form a single or a double line? 



Supplementary reading — Squirrels and Other Fur Bearers, Burroughs. 



Saw a littl-c skunk coming up the river bank in the woods at the white oak, a funny 

 little fellow, about six inches long and nearly as broad. It faced me and actually com- 

 pelled me to retreat before it for -five minutes. Perhaps I was between it and its hole. 

 Its broad black tail, tipped with white, was erect like a kitten's. It had what looked like 

 a broad ivhite band drawn tight across its forehand or top-head, from which two lines of 

 white ran down, one on each stde of its back, and there was a narroiv white line down its 

 snout. It raised tts back, sometimes ran a few feet forward, sometimes backward, and 

 repeatedly turned its tail to me, prepared to discharge its fluid, like the old ones. Suck 

 was its instinct, and all the while it kept -up a fine grunting like a kttle pig or a red 

 squirrel. — Henry Thoreau. 



Few animals are so silent as the skunk. Zoological works contain no information 

 as to its voice, and the essayists rarely mention it except by implication. Mr. Bur- 

 roughs says: "The most silent creature known to me, he makes no sound, so far as I 

 have observed, save a diffuse, impatient noise, like that produced by beating your hand 

 with a whisk-broom, when the farm-dog has discovered his retreat in the stone fence." 

 Rowland Robinson tells us that: "The voiceless creature sometimes frightens the 

 belated farm-boy, ivhom he curiously follows with a mysterious hollow beating of his feet 

 upon the ground." Thoreau, as has been mentioned, heard one keep up a "fine 

 grunting, like a little pig or a squirrel;" but he seems to have misunderstood altogether a 

 singular loud patting sound heard repeatedly on the frozen ground under the wall, which 

 he also listened to, for he thought it "had to do ivith getting its food, patting the eartli to 

 get the insects or worms." Probably he would have omitted this guess if he could Jiave 

 edited his diary instead of leaving that to be done after his death. The patting is evi- 

 dently merely a nervous sign of impatience or apprehension, similar to the well-known 

 stamping with the hind feet indulged in by rabbits, in this case probably a menace like a 

 doubling of the fists, as the hind legs, with which they kick, are their only weapons. 

 The skunk, then, is not voiceless, bid its voice is ivcak and querulous, and it is rarely if 

 ever heard except in the expression of anger. 



— Ernest Ingersol in "Wild Xeighbors." 



