16 Bulletin of the New York State Museum. 



scent or instinct in discovering the location, and then their aston- 

 ishing celerity in digging out and gobbling the grabs. But most 

 astonishing of all was the quantity of grubs those two little beasts 

 would devour every evening. I have often watched them, and, 

 incredible as it may seem, I could not say that they ate less than 

 half a bushel daily ! " To the above statement, the suggestion is 

 added, that a very valuable ally might be obtained in our war against 

 the white grub by removing the odoriferous glands from the skunk, 

 and domesticating him for employment as a grub killer. 



Mr. Hoard, of Wisconsin, has made the following statement: 

 I once had eight acres of hops, in which the white grub was very 

 destructive. I went through the hops one morning, when there had 

 been a couple of skunks in the hops in the night, and I found by 

 actual count that they had investigated 400 hop hills, and I thence- 

 forth became a very firm friend of the skunk (Trans. Wise. St. 

 Agricul. Soc, xix, 1881, p. 298). 



A correspondent of the Practical Farmer had watched the habits 

 of skunks for twenty years, and found their natural food to be 

 ' insects. He had a field of com attacked by the white grub, in 

 which he afterwards observed numerous small, round holes where 

 these insects had been taken out by the skunks and devoured. He 

 believed that the skunk should stand first in the list of insect 

 destroyers, as it fed upon other noxious insects in addition to the 

 white grub {Counb-y Gentleman for Jan. 25, 1877, p. 527). 



A correspondent from Washington county, N. T., gives this testi- 

 mony: "Before skunks began to be hunted, we had no trouble 

 with the white grub, and I think they kept them down. I often 

 found my corn-hills rooted into, evidently by skunks in search of 

 grubs. Those dug into early in the season made a fair crop, while 

 those untouched until later were destroyed. I have also seen the 

 same signs in meadows and pastures" (Country Gentl&nan, Dec. 29, 

 1881, p. 851). 



Not only are the grubs so eagerly sought for and devoured by 

 this animal, but it is also, according to Dr. Fitch, a natural destroyer 

 of the beetle, its food consisting almost entirely of this insect dur- 

 ing the short period of its existence (Third Fitch Rept. Ins. N. Y., 

 p. 55). This is in accordance with the statement of Dr. Harris, to 

 the effect that the beetles are devoured by the skunk, whose bene- 

 ficial foraging is detected in our gardens by its abundant excrement 

 filled with the wing-cases of these insects. 



