INTRODUCING MR. AND MRS. SKUNK 33 
At just what age the fighting apparatus of a 
young skunk functions there is no safe way of 
judging. Ifan enemy or an intruder appear near 
a young skunk before his defensive machinery 
has developed the youngster strikes an impres- 
sive attitude, puts up a black-plumed tail, and 
runs an effective bluff. 
I came upon a black bear, who had guessed 
wrong, just a few minutes after he had charged 
a pair of young skunks. His tracks showed 
that he had paused to look at them and do a 
little thinking before he charged. He had ad- 
vanced, stopped, stood behind a rock pile and 
debated the matter. The skunks were young— 
but just how young? Perhaps he had tasted 
delicious young skunk, and possibly he had not 
yet taken a skunk seriously. When I came up 
he was rubbing his face against a log and had 
already taken a dive in the brook. 
A fox came into the scene where I was watch- 
ing an entire skunk family. In his extrava- 
gantly rich robe he was handsome as he stood 
in the shadow close to a young skunk. With- 
out seeing the mother, he leaped to seize the 
youngster. But he swerved in the air as he 
met the old skunk’s acid test. Regardless of 
his thousand-dollar fur, he rolled, thrashed, and 
tumbled about in the bushes and in the mud 
flat by a brook. 
