2l8 ECONOMIC MAMMALOGY 



bites. "There is no reason to suppose that they are more subject to it 

 [rabies] than dogs or cats, nor more dangerous to human beings when 

 they do have it." 25 Seton says he has been often bitten by skunks and 

 has seen several skunk farmers bitten severely, without being infected 

 with rabies. 26 



"Prof. Charles T. Vorhies, of the University of Arizona, has col- 

 lected evidence which indicates that skunks are rather more apt to 

 bite sleepers than are coyotes, wolves and dogs; also that perhaps a 

 larger proportion of bites from skunks produces rabies than of the 

 bites from any other animal. Statistics on over 3000 cases of rabies, 

 however, indicate only i per cent infected from skunks, so that, after 

 all, the total showing is not great. Doctor Vorhies concludes that in 

 case of skunk bite the Pasteur treatment should be promptly taken." 27 



Various writers have declared that the flesh of skunks is good for 

 the table, if properly prepared. 28 



Subfamily Taxidiinae BADGERS. 



"The badger feeds mainly on small rodents, varied with grasshop- 

 pers, beetles, scorpions, lizards or some large animal found dead. It 

 is accused of killing poultry, but the accusation is so rarely substan- 

 tiated that it may well be ignored. Pocket gophers, kangaroo rats, 

 wood rats and various kinds of mice are always acceptable, but the 

 badger lives mainly on prairie-dogs and ground squirrels." Yet they 

 are killed by ranchers for fear that they might catch a chicken. Their 

 burrows are a menace to horses and riders on the range, but not more 

 so than the much more numerous holes of the prairie-dogs whose num- 

 bers the badgers help keep within bounds. 29 They cleared the prairie- 

 dogs from an area a mile and a half long in a Colorado gulch, a large 

 percentage of the prairie-dog burrows having been dug out by badg- 

 ers. 30 They are powerful diggers, and easily dig all sorts of rodents out 

 of their holes, taking two or three ground squirrels, a few gophers 



25 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 25, p. 210, 1905; Animal life of Carlsbad Cavern, 



p. 102, 1928. 



28 Seton, Lives of game animals, n, Part I, pp. 345-347, Part 2, pp. 384-39?, 1929- 



27 Taylor and Shaw, Mammals and birds of Mount Rainier National Park, p. 55, 

 1927 ; citing Vorhies, Univ. Arizona Agric. Exper. Sta. Bull. No. 83, pp. 368-373, 

 1917. 



28 See, for example, Seton, Lives of game animals, u, Part i, pp. 360-366, 1929. 

 Merriam, Mammals of the Adirondacks, p. 76, 1884. 



29 Bailey, N. Amer. Fauna, No. 25, pp. 184-186, 1905. Seton, Lives of game ani- 

 mals, n, Part i, pp. 282-294, 1929. 



30 Silver, Badger activities in prairie-dog control, Journ. Mammalogy, ix, 63, 1928. 



