2l8 WILD NEIGHBORS chap. 



Southern relatives are also black and white, but 

 differently marked. All the skunks form a con- 

 spicuous exception to the prevalent rule among 

 mammals that those parts of the body next the 

 ground are light, the belly and limbs here being 

 invariably dark colored. Thoreau pictures the 

 animal neatly in a June memorandum : 



" Saw a little skunk coming up the river bank in 

 the woods at the white oak, a funny little fellow, 

 about six inches long and nearly as broad. It 

 faced me and actually compelled me to retreat 

 before it for five minutes. Perhaps I was between 

 it and its hole. Its broad black tail, tipped with 

 white, was erect like a kitten's. It had what 

 looked like a broad white band drawn tight across 

 its forehead or top-head, from which two lines of 

 white ran down, one on each side of its back, and 

 there was a narrow white line down its snout. It 

 raised its back, sometimes ran a few feet forward, 

 sometimes backward, and repeatedly turned its tail 

 to me, prepared to discharge its fluid, like the old 

 ones. Such was its instinct, and all the while it 

 kept up a fine grunting like a little pig or a red 

 squirrel." 



This resemblance to a fluffy-tailed black and 

 white kitten has played the mischief with many 

 kind-hearted but unsophisticated persons, — a reac- 

 tionary sort of mimicry that it would puzzle Dar- 

 winians to explain, I fear. As a matter of fact, 

 these youngsters are much more to be dreaded 



