210 WILD NEIGHBORS CHAP. 
fetid discharge at once, therefore, and have done 
with it. 
In the first place, it is to be noted that musky 
secretions, more or less intense in their nauseating 
effect on the human nostrils, are characteristic of 
the whole tribe to which the skunk belongs, — 
the Mustelide. To this tribe belong the Euro- 
pean polecat, the mink, — whose discharges, when 
excited, are far more disgusting than anything the 
skunk utters, — and various other evil-smelling fur- 
bearers, while to the closely related badger family 
belong not only our own far from fragrant badger, 
but also the stinking-badger or teledu of the East 
Indies, the honey-badgers of South Africa, and 
the wolverine. Of this company, — so abominable 
when considered from this single point of view, 
—the skunk is by no means the worst, although 
none equals him in the power of disseminating 
the perfume, nor in its copiousness. The Yan- 
kees call him an “essence pedler.” 
In the skunk, the fetid material is contained 
in two capsules embedded in the muscles beneath 
the root of the tail, one on each side of the 
intestinal outlet, into which, just within the anus, 
they open by little nipples perforated by fine 
ducts; another longer duct leads into each of 
them from absorbent vessels situated deeper 
in the body. These glandular capsules are not 
larger than peas, and are enclosed in a thick 
envelope of muscles, which, when suddenly and 
