vit THE SKUNK, CALMLY CONSIDERED 235 
ing its ability to adapt itself to any kind of country 
or climate, as is shown by its almost continental 
range; recalling the wide variety and plenty of 
its food, not to speak of its faculty for avoiding 
winter scarcity by sleeping its want away ; and re- 
membering the character of its anal artillery, — 
one would think, I say, that, leaving humanity out 
of the question, this animal had practically no limit 
to its increase and longevity; and when one adds 
to this the fact of its unusual prolificacy, it is sur- 
prising that the land is not positively overrun with 
skunks. Yet there never seems to have been any 
disproportionate abundance of them. One impor- 
tant check to their multiplication may be fatal in- 
testinal parasites, derived from thcir prey, but these 
are probably no more injurious to this carnivore 
than to many others; and the wonder grows, — 
not that there are so many skunks, but that there 
are not millions more. 
If Mr. Wallace and his friends are right, the 
conspicuous coloring of the skunk is designed 
(in a Darwinian sense) as a “warning” to all 
and sundry in the forest to keep their distance. 
On the back of every Northern skunk are bold 
white bands and patches alternating with coal- 
black, making it an object visible and attractive 
to brute curiosity from a long ‘distance; but, as 
if to increase this notoriety to its utmost, the 
animal always hoists its tail, and the tip of it 
—or, in some species, the whole of this pompon- 
