194 ORDER V. 



and flung, by what was said to have been a whisk 

 of its tail, the contents of the fetid Lag, chiefly 

 upon the clothes of the young woman; and we 

 were assured that the offensive smell could not be 

 entirely removed but by time, although repeated 

 washing and baking in an oven would in a great 

 measure subdue it. Dogs, who have an uncontrol- 

 lable instinct to worry these animals, no sooner feel 

 the effluvia in their nostrils, than they dig with their 

 snouts like hogs into the ground, and often scratch 

 their noses till they bleed profusely : yet it is said 

 that Skunks, long kept in captivity, are nearly des- 

 titute of the offensive faculty. They reside in both 

 Americas, from Canada to Chili. 



It is difficult to enumerate the species of this 

 genus, because, like other Carnivora that have the 

 contrasting colours of black and white disposed 

 upon their liveries, the form of the marks, though 

 sufficiently constant in one region, is greatly liable 

 to vary in another, and again in a third ; but taking 

 for type, according to Mr. Gray's distribution (#), 

 with tail elongate, hairs sparse, long, and pen- 

 dant, 



Mephitis ( Americana) bwirgata. The Common 

 Skunk. We have a species of which we have beeji 

 enabled to make designs of the adult male and 

 female, and two young ; the male about 14 inches 

 long from nose to tail, and the tail, from root to the 

 extremity of long hair, about 10 ; the female some- 

 what less, and the young little more than five inches, 

 exclusive of about 2 inches of tail. All were pro- 



