milky grain. But they do most damage among 

 the chickens. For downright destructiveness, a 

 knowing old skunk, with a nice taste for pullets 

 and a thorough acquaintance with the barn-yard, 

 discounts even Reynard. Reynard is the reputed 

 arch-enemy of poultry, yet there is a good deal 

 of the sportsman about him ; he has some sort of 

 honor, a sense of the decency of the game. The 

 skunk, on the contrary, is a poacher, a slaugh- 

 terer for the mere sake of it. My host, in a single 

 night, had fourteen hens killed by a skunk that 

 dug under the coop and deliberately bit them 

 through the neck. He is not so cunning nor so 

 swift as the fox, but the skunk is no stupid. He 

 is cool and calm and bold. He will advance 

 upon and capture a hen-house, and be off to his 

 den, while a fox is still studying his map of the 

 farm. 



Yet, like every other predatory creature, the 

 skunk more than balances his debt for corn and 

 chickens by his credit for the destruction of 

 obnoxious vermin. He feeds upon insects and 

 mice, destroying great numbers of the latter by 

 digging out the nests and eating the young. But 

 we forget our debt when the chickens disap- 

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