ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 3 
expended in wages and bounties for wolf de- 
struction. 
In approaching the wolves and weasels, some 
of our principles against the extermination of 
species break down, and we note exceptions. 
There are those who believe that it would be 
a good thing for the world at large if all wolves 
and weasels were to be totally blotted out of ex- 
istence. We believe that their destruction of 
more valuable wild creatures outweighs their 
own fur value. 
All the members of the Marten Family, in 
which are the fishers, martens, skunks, weasels 
and mink, are and merciless killers. 
Some of them, such as the weasel, mink and 
skunk, are wholesale slaughterers who murder 
helpless birds by the dozen for the vicious lust 
of murder. For example, on two occasions a 
mink wiped out an entire flock of over twenty 
gulls (in the New York Zoological Park) in a 
single killing, and without devouring even one. 
On the estate of Mr. C. C. Worthington, at 
Shawnee. Pennsylvania, one murderous little 
savage 
weasel murdered twenty-four ring-necked pheas- 
ants in one night! 
The skunk is the pariah of the class Mam- 
malia, a dangerous and disgusting outcast, and 
it is a good thing for the world that his pelt is 
wanted for its fur. May the price of skunk 
skins never go down until the last skunk has 
been gathered in! This view, however, will not 
receive the endorsement of those fur dealers who 
hold that the skunk is so nearly harmless to 
man that he should be tolerated and encouraged 
for the sake of his fur. 
The wolverine is the devil of devils—on four 
legs. His only redeeming trait is his skin, and 
even that is a poor excuse as fur. 
The “sufferings” of wolverines, weasels, mink 
and skunk in traps are not so great as they may 
seem. A marten or a mink will eat a good meal 
with one foot in a trap. It is the way of the 
members of the Marten Family to tear and de- 
your their prey alive, and it is the way of man 
to catch them in about the only way in which 
it can be done—in steel traps. We do not be- 
y 
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REDKANGAROO OF AUSTRALIA 
This species fitly represents the many species of Austraiian kangaroos and wallabies that are slaughtered in great numbers for their skins to be 
used both as fur and for shoe leather. 
The photograph of an automobile in Austraiia loaded with dead kangaroos originally 
intended for this articie 1s at present unavaliable 
