vm THE SKUNK, CALMLY CONSIDERED 235 



ing its ability to adapt itself to any kind of country 

 or climate, as is shown by its almost continental 

 range ; recalling the wide variety and plenty of 

 its food, not to speak of its faculty for avoiding 

 winter scarcity by sleeping its want away ; and re- 

 membering the character of its anal artillery, — 

 one would think, I say, that, leaving humanity out 

 of the question, this animal had practically no limit 

 to its increase and longevity ; and when one adds 

 to this the fact of its unusual prolificacy, it is sur- 

 prising that the land is not positively overrun with 

 skunks. Yet there never seems to have been any 

 disproportionate abundance of them. One impor- 

 tant check to their multiplication may be fatal in- 

 testinal parasites, derived from their prey, but these 

 are probably no more injurious to this carnivore 

 than to many others ; and the wonder grows, — 

 not that there are so many skunks, but that there 

 are not millions more. 



If Mr. Wallace and his friends are right, the 

 conspicuous coloring of the skunk is designed 

 (in a Darwinian sense) as a "warning" to all 

 and sundry in the forest to keep their distance. 

 On the back of every Northern skunk are bold 

 white bands and patches alternating with coal- 

 black, making it an object visible and attractive 

 to brute curiosity from a long distance ; but, as 

 if to increase this notoriety to its utmost, the 

 animal always hoists its tail, and the tip of it 

 — or, in some species, the whole of this pompon- 



