GOOD DONE BY SKUNKS 
The staple food of skunks in summer is insects, mainly beetles, grass- 
hoppers, and the like. The number of insects a single one will destroy is 
enormous, and mice are also pursued with avidity and success. The pro- 
digious harm both the insects and the mice do to crops, orchards, grass, etc., 
is expressed in appalling statistics; and the skunk is one of the most effi- 
cient aids of the harassed agriculturist, yet, because it occasionally raids 
A LITTLE STRIPED SKUNK OR PHOBY CAT. 
a poultry yard, it is killed on sight by the average farmer, whose prejudice 
is as large as his ignorance. Western skunks capture the destructive 
striped gophers and prairie spermophiles, while even rabbits are now and 
then followed and attacked. These timid animals have a habit of running 
into any sort of a hole, and frequently enter one at the other end of which 
dwells a skunk, fox, or badger, which makes short work of poor bunny, 
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