Skunk 



This curious and interesting animal of our northwest coast 

 has been reduced to danger of extinction by the fur hunters, 

 who find in its skin the most valuable pelt furnished by any 

 North American quadruped. 



H. W. Elliott says of it: "There is no sexual dissimilarity 

 in colour or size, and both parents manifest the same intense 

 shyness and aversion to man, coupled with the greatest solici- 

 tude for their young, which they bring into existence at all sea- 

 sons of the year. As the natives have never caught the mothers 

 bringing forth their offspring on the rocks, they are disposed to 

 believe that their birth takes place on kelp beds in pleasant or 

 not over-rough weather. The female has a single pup, born about 

 fifteen inches in length, and provided during the first month or 

 two with a coat of coarse brownish grizzled fur, head and nape 

 grizzled, grayish, rufous white. The fur is prime at two years, 

 though the animal is not full-grown until its fourth or fifth year. 



"The sea otter mother sleeps in the water on her back, 

 with her young clasped between her fore-paws. The pup can- 

 not live without its mother. Their food is almost entirely com- 

 posed of clams, mussels and sea urchins, of which they are very 

 fond and which they break up by striking the shells together, 

 held in each fore-paw, sucking out the contents as they are 

 fractured by these efforts. They also undoubtedly eat crabs and 

 fish, and the juicy, tender fronds of kelp. They are not polyga- 

 mous, and more than one individual is seldom seen at a time 

 when out at sea. They are playful, it would seem, for I am 

 assured by several old hunters that they have watched the sea- 

 otter for half an hour as it lay upon its back in the water, and 

 tossed a piece of sea-weed in the air from paw to paw, ap- 

 parently taking great delight in catching it before it could fall 

 into the water." 



Skunk 



Mephitis putida (Cuvier) 



Called also Polecat. 



Length. 2 feet. 



Description. Body covered with long hair, tail very large and 

 bushy; colour black with a white patch on the back of the 

 neck, from which two stripes extend down the back and 



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