ZOOLOGY. 117 



best treatment, and that after a short space of time the unpleasant symptoms all disappear. Have 

 heard that bathing the eyes in weak vinegar- and water is also very efficacious. The skunk is 

 said to cast its anal secretion upon its bushy tail, and that, with a dexterous jerk, it then throws 

 it upon its pursuer. The settlers say that if a skunk is lifted up by the tail, he cannot, while 

 thus suspended, throw the secretion upon his captor. This is an exj^eriment which I confess 

 I have not had the hardihood to make. 



A large fat skunk, carefully prepared, I saw cooking in a camp on the Blue mountains of 

 Oregon. The meat seemed so savory that I asked the gastronomic experimenter, who owned 

 it, to give me a piece to taste. He did so, and I, finding the creature so much to my fancy, 

 made a hearty dinner oif of it. When carefully prepared, the anal glands and "scent bag" 

 having been completely removed, they are certainly very good eating; the slightly strong flavor 

 resembling much that artificially given by a skilful chef de cuisine with onions or garlic. 



The settlers on the lower part of Puget Sound say that there are there two species of skunk; 

 one of these, the larger kind, of which specimen marked No. 125, in my collection, is an 

 example, is the M. occidentalis. The other is a small species not more than one-third the size 

 of the first. [This is larobabl}' the M. hicolor, Gray.] It is a verj' pretty animal, not 

 striped like the other, but of a black color, mottled or spotted on the back with white, as if with 

 digit marks of white paint. This statement is made on the authoritj' of several respectable 

 citizens of the vicinity, who all unite as to the truth of the facts stated. Perhaps they may 

 be in error by taking the young of the common kind for a second species. They say that the 

 small skunk is not often found in winter, and that it is supposed that they hibernate. Also, 

 that the small kind climb well, like rats, and do not often cast their odor. Mr. Madison, a settler 

 at the Straits of Fuca, says that the habits of the two kinds are so different that he is sure that 

 they are not identical. 



The frequent residence of skunk, under the ground floors of the settlers' houses has already 

 been alluded to. Living and breeding in these situations, they keep the atmosphere always 

 slightly stimulating to the nostrils. Mirabile dictu ! it seems that some people becoming accus- 

 tomed to the scent rather acquire a fondness for it, upon the same principle, I suppose, that 

 certain chemists become fond of the odor of sulphuretted hydrogen ! The Nisqually Indians 

 call the skunk shon-7neoh, and have some very amusing traditions concerning it. — S. 



TAXIDEA AMERICANA, Baird. 



American Badger. 



[See cbap. 2, p. 94.] 



The badger is very common on the dr}', barren plains on tlie Yakima river, Washington 

 Territory, also on the timberless mountains between the Yakima and the Columbia. I have 

 never seen any badgers ivest of the Cascade mountains. It is called the by Yakimas Weehthla. — G. 



During my residence in Washington Territory I obtained but one skin of the badger, although 

 the animal is, as Mr. Gibbs remarks, very plentiful in the open country east of the Cascade 

 mountains. In certain sections, as, for instance, the Simcoe valley, their burrows are so numerous 

 that it is exceedingly dangerous to ride fast lest your horse should, by stepping in one, fall, at 

 great risk to both himself and the rider. This is also the case on the plains of the buffalo 

 regions in western Minnesota (now Dacotah) and Nebraska. In the first mentioned Territory 

 their burrows are inhabited in midsummer by vast numbers of a gregarious species of garter 

 snake. I have seen at times, at the bottom of a vacated "hole," a dozen or more in a knot — 

 the writhing excessively serpentine mass disgusting all but the naturalist. 



