296 VEETEBEATA. 



to have provided any oreafcure with more effective protection than is bestowed by this syringa 

 11 1 ... ti the skunk. We surely cannot doubl the fertility of nature's resources when we find a whole 

 ■ of animals enjoying life, liberty, and a free pass, through motives address, .1 exclusively to 

 the nose, it maj indeed be said that all this belongs rather to the ridiculous than the sublime, and 

 that the skunk — four-legged or otherwis< — is always ami everywhere an object of mingled aver- 

 sion and contempt. Tin' reply is, that being what he is, lie doubtless enjoys his privilege, ami 

 may he supposed even to triumph in the general disgust he excites among those who are not of 

 his genus. 



The Common Ski \k of the United States, Mephitis Americana, or Mephitis chincha, or Viverra 

 putorius — the Seecawk of the Cree Indians, the Fiskatta of Kahn, or, according to Charlevoix, 

 the Enfant du diabh — has a body about seventeen inches long, with a tail, including the long 

 hair, twelve inches. The head is small, the forehead rounded, the body long, fleshy, and widen- 

 ing toward the hips; fur long and coarse, with long, glossy hairs intermixed; eyes small, ears 

 short and rounded; feel broad, and nails of the fore-feet strong, curved, and sharp. The two anal 

 -■land- are situated <>n each side of the rectum ; the sack is supposed to contain about three drams 

 of the offensive Liquid. When this is ejected, the tail is carried forward and nearly laid on the back 

 An experienced person, perceiving this sign of preparation, is always careful to put himself instantly 

 out of shooting distance. It is said that the scent is much stronger if the ejection takes place 

 when the animal is irritated, and that it is also stronger at night than in the day-time. At night 

 the liquid has a luminous appearance, and a stream of it has been compared to a stream of phos- 

 phoric light. It possesses a very acrid quality, and dogs and persons into whose eyes it has I 

 thrown have been rendered blind. 



The Bpecies vary much in the markings; indeed, as in the case of striped grasses, it is difficult 

 to tiud two precisely alike. In general, the color is a blackish brown, with a narrow stripe of yel- 

 lowish white along the nose to the head; a large patch of white on the nape of the neck, and 

 extending downward in a stripe on each side of the back, and a stripe of white on each side of the 

 tail for three fourths of its length. The tail is often tipped with white. But as we have said, these 

 markings are variously modified. It is believed that when both parents are alike in color and 

 markings, the young ones are similarly colored; but if the parents are dissimilar, the offsprin 

 diversified.* 



T' skunk is a prolific animal, bringing forth from four to eight at a birth. Sometimes as 

 many as fifteen skunks have been found in one burrow. During the winter, in the cold parts ol 

 the country, these animals keep close in their burrows, in a dozing but not torpid state. At the 

 south, tiny are active the year round. They are cleanly in their habits, and never suffer them- 

 es to be soiled by their own effluvia any more than the rattlesnake by his own venom. Some 

 wild animals, as well as Indians, make prey of the skunk, and we have read in the pages of a 

 distinguished naturalist a recommendation of it as "well tasted and savory." This is a common 

 animal in nearly all the Atlantic States: depending upon its peculiar battery for defense, it is 

 often seen walking slowly along, its tail erect, with an air of conscious security or impudent defi- 

 ance, and if it perceives a man it does not always take the trouble to get out of his way ; the man 

 is mosl Likely to beat a retreat; indeed, a brave man is quite as likely to run from a skunk as a 

 Lion. The fetid liquid is ejected in small streams, sometimes to the distance of fourteen feet, 

 usually with great accuracy of aim. As wc have stated, the odor is stronger at night than daring 



■ Th" following careful description is from Sir John Richardson's Fauna Boreali-Amerieana : " The skunk is low or, 

 it- legs, with a broad fleshy bu.lv, white forehead, and the general aspect rather of a wolverene than of a marten 



-imill ; ears shorl and round. A narrow white mesial line runs from the tip of the nose to the occiput, whi 

 dilates into a broad white mark. It is again narrowed, and continues so until it passes the shoulders, when it I 

 the branches runn ng the -id. i, and becoming much broader as they recede from each other. They approach 



posteriorly, and unite on the tump, becoming at the same time narrower. In some few specimens the white stripe- 

 do not unite behind, but disappear on the Banks. The black dorsal space included by the stripes is egg-shaped, tlm 

 narrow end of which i- toward the shoulders. The sides of the head and all the under parts are black. The hair ei 

 the body is long. The tail is covered with very long hair, and has generally two broad longitudinal white stri|"- 

 above on a black ground. Sometimes the colors of the tail are irregularly mixed; its under surface is black. Th< 

 claws on the fore-feet arc very Btrong and long, being litted for digging, and very unlike those - of martens." 



