CARNIVORA 217 



be entirely avoided by placing the hives upon a high bench." 18 One 

 skunk ate two kittens. 19 



The contents of seventeen stomachs of the spotted skunks (Spilo- 

 gale) consisted mostly of insects, chiefly grasshoppers and beetles, with 

 mice and other small mammals, lizards, salamanders, small birds and 

 crayfish. One contained persimmons and fungi, another contained re- 

 mains of three gray squirrels. They have proved valuable in destroying 

 mice and rats in a house that was overrun with those rodents. They 

 are sometimes destructive to small birds and poultry and occasionally 

 to peanuts. 20 Two stomachs of S. gracilis from Arizona each con- 

 tained remains of the desert mouse (Peromyscus eremicus) . 21 



The following information concerning skunks is derived from Bail- 

 ey's Texas report: 22 White-backed skunk (Conepatus mesoleucus 

 telmalestes) : three stomachs, filled with mostly beetles, but a few 

 grubs, large brown flies and grasshoppers. Mearns hog-nosed skunk 

 (C. m. mearnsi) : in July found feeding on beetles, grasshoppers, crick- 

 ets, and ripe cactus fruit. Long-tailed Texas skunk (Mephitis tneso- 

 melas varians) : some stomachs filled with berries of zizyphus, but eats 

 also cactus fruit, persimmons and berries, and favorite food is grass- 

 hoppers, cicadas, beetles and grub worms. The Gulf spotted skunk 

 (Spilogale indianola) : one stomach contained crayfish and a Perog- 

 nathus, another contained beetles, another contained grasshoppers. 



The spotted skunks are often called hydrophobia skunks, because 

 of a popular belief that their bites usually or always produce rabies. 

 Possibly the fact that the skunks attack men sleeping in camps, during 

 "spells of temporary insanity" or "violent frenzy," has had something 

 to do with their bad reputation, as has been suggested. 23 There do 

 seem to be a few cases in which that dread disease has followed bites 

 of skunks, just as it has followed the bites of dogs, coyotes and other 

 mammals, 24 but in most cases nothing serious has resulted from skunk 



"Lantz, Farmers' Bull., No. 587, p. n, 1923. Plath, The bee-eating proclivities 

 of the skunk, Amer. Naturalist, LVII, 570-574, 1926. 



19 Dice, Skunk eats kittens, Journ. Mammalogy, vii, 131, 1926. 



20 Lantz, Bull. Kansas Agric. College, No. 129, pp. 389-390. Seton, Lives of game 

 animals, n, Part 2, p. 393, 1929. Howell, Revision of the skunks of the genus 

 Spilogale, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 26, pp. 8-9, 1906; N. Amer. Fauna, No. 45, p. 37, 

 1921. 



21 Merriam, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 3, p. 83, 1890. 



22 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 25, pp. 200-205, 1905. 



23 Mitchell, "Mexican polecat," "hydrophobia cat," Spilogale indianola, of south- 

 ern Texas, Journ. Mammalogy, iv, 49-51, 1923. 



24 Coues, A monograph of North American Mustelidae, pp. 223-235, 1877. 

 Howell, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 26, p. 8, 1906. 



