ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 39 
THE COMMON SKUNK (left) AND THE LITTLE STRIPED SKUNK OR “HYDROPHOBIA CAT” (right) 
From the “American Natural History,’ by permission of Chas. Scribner's Sons. 
steady increases in the value of raw furs, which 
sent into the fur fields a grand army of new 
trappers. The whole world was raked and 
scraped for fur, good, indifferent and bad. Even 
the back-yards of New York City were swept 
clean of domestic cats whose skins were hurled 
into the rapacious jaws of the fur trade, at fifty 
cents per throw. Never in its history has Man- 
hattan been so blissfully free of yowling cats as 
now; and this is no joke. 
In 1919 and 1920 this wild orgy of fur- 
seeking culminated in a series of dramatic cli- 
maxes in high prices. The peak was reached in 
the sales of January, 1920, and then the bottom 
of the fur boom dropped out. All over America 
prices fell to figures that spelled ruin to many 
an overloaded fur buyer and the rush to liqui- 
date immediately began. As the most cruel blow 
of all, Fashion, the fickle jade, turned against the 
“silver’’-black fox, which for years had been the 
spoiled darling of the London fur market. We 
will not dwell in detail upon this harrowing epi- 
sode, but we have been assured that “black fox 
is no longer wanted” at fancy prices. 
The great drop in the price of furs caused 
thousands of trappers to stop in mid-career. 
Some fur buyers even sent out circulars calling 
for less trapping. 
Had the high prices continued for about five 
vears, I think they would have finished up the 
fur-bearing animals of the world, excepting the 
rabbits, rats and mice. But now they have a 
little breathing space, pending the final assault. 
I know of no better index of the danger now 
hanging over the fur animals and the fur trade 
than the price of fur and fur garments, and the 
wastefulness in designs. 
We know that the one sure way to exterminate 
a wild animal species is to remove protection 
from it and place a cash price on the head of 
each individual. The American bison was ex- 
terminated because of $2.50 per hide. The pas- 
senger pigeon millions were annihilated because 
of ten cents per dozen. The sea otter has van- 
ished because of the awful prices paid for skins. 
After long years of trapping the beaver became 
so nearly extinct that for a dozen years beaver 
fur almost disappeared from the fur markets 
of the world. 
It is impracticable to quote here a long list of 
prices of fur garments, but we can show in one 
table an excellent exhibit of the prices at which 
