61 



pearecl in zoological literature over one hundred years before the Lin- 

 naean system. Gabriel Sagard-Theodat quaintly describes it in his his- 

 tory of Canada, 1636, as follows ; 



" Les enfans du diable, que lea Hnrons appelJent Scangareese, &, le commun des Mon- 

 tagnais BaboUgi Manitou, ou Oaiuesqiie, est un beste fort puante, de la grandeur d'uii 

 chat on d'un ieune renard, mais elle a la teste uu ppu inoins aigue, & la peau couuerte 

 d'un gros poil rude & enfum^, et sa grosse queue retrou8s<5e de mesme, elle se cache en 

 Hyuer sous la neige, <fe ne sort point qu'au comnjencement de la Lunertu mois de Mars, 

 laquelle les Moutagnais nomment Ouiniscon pismi, qui signifie la Lnne de la Ouinesque. 

 Get animal, outre qu'il est d* fort mauuaise odeur, est tres-malicieux & d'un laid regard, 

 ils iettent aussi (4 ce qu'on dit) parmy leurs ©xcremens de petits serpens, longs & deliez, 

 les quels ne -viuent neant moins gueres long temps. I'en pensois apporter une peau 

 pass^e, mais un Frangois passa^er me i'ayant demand^e ie la luy donnay." 



This passage contains the earliest account of the Skunk known to 

 Richardson or Dr. Coues. The present species was not clearly indicated 

 by Linnaeus and his early supporters. The Vimrra putorius L. was based 

 on Kalm'g " Fiskatta," no doubt the present animal, but the primary 

 reference is to Catesby's Polecat, and the description rather suits the 

 Spilogale. Later (1736), Linnaeus rested his species on Catesby and Kalm 

 (as in 1768), and involved the history by citing Hernandez, Ray, Seba, 

 and Brisson, thus including animals generically as well as specifically 

 distinct. Not until 1792 was the species described with sufficient perti- 

 nence and exclusiveness {Viverra mepMtica, Shaw) to warrant a tenable 

 specific name. 



On account of its literal resemblance to the genus Mephitis (Cuvier), 

 the specific title mephitica was suppressed until revived by Baird, in 1857, 

 in accordance with the law of priority. 



M. chinga (Tiedemann, 1S08), is undoubtedly the same as the present 

 species, and was adopted by Tiedemann, Audubon and Bachman, and 

 others, until 1857. Since this date the alliterative name, Mej^hitis me- 

 phitica has become current. 



Habits.— The disposition, habits, and possibly the structure (as far as 

 this may be conditional on its mode of life) of the Skunk, are modified 

 so completely, as compared with other Mustelid^, by its unique and effi- 

 cient mode of defense and offense, continual reliance upon which has 

 changed its entire economy, that no correct outline can be portrayed, 

 unless the nature and use of its peculiar armament are understood. " The 

 physiological rSle of this special secretion is obvious. Its relation to the 

 perpetuation of the species, though overshadowed by its exageration into 

 a powerfully effective means of preservation of the invidual, is evidently 

 the same as in other species of MusteUdx, each one of which has its own 

 emanation to bring the sexes together, not only by amply indicating 

 their whereabouts, but by serying as a positive attraction. In the case 



