THE SKUNK 
EDANGERJHERE i is certainly no one but a naturalist 
| would have thought of making a pet of 
y these malodorous little animals, but Dr. 
i Hart C. Merriam, one of our greatest 
y, living naturalists, once lived near the Adi- 
rondack mountains. While there, he 
tamed young skunks, and declares them to be 
cleanly and charming pets. He says: 
“From some I removed the scent bags, but the 
greater number were left in the state of nature. 
None ever emitted any odor, although a couple 
of them, when half-grown, used to assume a pain- 
fully suggestive attitude on the approach of strang- 
ers. These same skunks, when I came within the 
reach, would climb up my legs and get into my arms. 
They liked to be carried, and never offered’to bite.”’ 
The doctor’s favorite of these pets was called 
“Meph’’, and Meph used to accompany him on his 
drives, curled up asleep in his pocket. Of Meph’s 
performances the doctor says: 
“After supper I commonly took a walk, and he 
always followed close at my heels. If I chanced to 
walk too fast for him he would scold and stamp 
with his fore feet, and if I persisted in keeping too far 
ahead, he would turn about disgusted and make off 
in a opposite direction; but if I stopped and called 
him he would follow along at a sort of ambling pace, 
and soon overtake me. . . . We used to walk 
through the woods to a large meadow that abounded 
in grasshoppers. Here Meph would fairly revel in 
his favorite food, and it was rich sport to watch 
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