THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
and, I hope, is properly grateful to the providence that thus sends a meal 
home in its original package. Reptiles, also, form a share of the skunk’s 
subsistence, — toads, frogs, salamanders, and serpents. 
To the skunk’s power of hurling an acrid and terribly stinking 
liquor from its anal glands great attention has been paid by 
everybody. Coues'” and Merriam“ furnish complete technical 
information as to the matter; and in ‘‘Wild Neighbors” I 
have sketched this information in detail, and discussed the effect 
of the possession of this extraordinary ‘“‘weapon” upon the 
nature and habits of the creature whose audacity seems merely 
the expression of perfect self-confidence. 
A closely allied genus (Spilogale), the little striped skunks, 
inhabits the warmer parts of the continent and contains several 
species. These are decidedly smaller than Mephitis, and instead 
of two broad white stripes have four narrow and often broken 
white stripes upon the shoulders, while the sides and rump are 
marked with transverse curving lines and irregular spots. One 
handsome species is distributed through most of our southern 
states. Finally, we have in Texas, and thence southward, the 
white-backed or hog-nosed skunks, or mapuritos of the genus 
Conepatus, which are of large size,and black, but with the whole 
back blanketed with white much like a ratel. The head is nar- 
row, the snout long and somewhat piglike, usually worn on top 
by much probing and rooting; and the tail is a short, stubby 
brush. The familiar Texin one” subsists mainly on large 
burrowing bectles and other noxious insects, varied by cactus 
fruits and berries. Its gland-discharge is vile and copious. 
The otters and sea otters must be separated as a subfamily 
(Lutrine) on account of their adaptations to an aquatic life 
and diet. Their lineage is ancient, going back at 
least to a Lower Miocene fossil ancestor, Potama- 
therium — a near relative of the civets of its period. Otters 
are distributed all over the world except Australasia, in about 
ten species, all very much alike. They have an elongated, 
182 
Otters. 
