342 Fretp Museum or Naturar History — Zoétrocy, Vot. XI. 
be referred to this species, many of them, as has already been shown, are 
not typical and strongly suggest intergradation. 
Skunks may be numbered among our best known animals, and, 
although they have the reputation of being undesirable neighbors, 
largely on account of their malodorous qualities, they are in reality 
one of our prettiest mammals. They are naturally inoffensive and are 
of great practical value to the farmer, as they destroy enormous quanti- 
ties of grasshoppers, beetles, etc. and they also prey upon and kill 
large numbers of Mice, Ground Squirrels, and other small mammals. 
It is true that they occasionally kill chickens and suck eggs when they 
find a nest, but the harm which they do is as nothing when compared 
with their value to the agriculturist in ridding his gardens and fields 
of the various pests which destroy his crops. 
Skunks usually make their homes in burrows in the ground, although 
they are not averse to living under an outbuilding or occasionally in 
an old hollow stump or log. In very cold weather there is no doubt 
that they hibernate to a more or less extent, but their sleep cannot be 
-very deep or protracted, for on mild winter days I have often seen 
their fresh tracks in the snow. Sometimes several Skunks live in a den 
in winter and it is claimed that four or five are often found together 
and sometimes as many as ten. It would seem probable that in most 
cases they are members of one family of the preceding season, although 
Kennicott states that as many as fifteen have been found in winter 
lying in one nest.* 
The young are born in April or early in May and usually number 
from 4 to 6, rarely more, although as many as ten in a litter have been 
recorded. They are very pretty little animals and, as already stated, 
when taken young and the scent glands removed they make interesting 
and often affectionate pets. 
Regarding the scent glands of these animals I cannot do better than 
quote my esteemed friend, Dr. C. Hart Merriam, who says: 
“His chief weapon of defence lies in the secretion of a pair of anal 
glands, that lie on either side of the rectum, and are imbedded in a 
dense gizzard-like mass of muscle which serves to compress them so 
forcibly that the contained fluid may be ejected to the distance of four 
or five metres (approximately 13 to 1634 feet). Each sac is furnished 
with a single duct that leads into a prominent nipple-like papilla that is 
capable of being protruded from the anus, and by means of which the 
direction of the jet is governed. The secretion is a clear, limpid fluid 
of an amber or golden yellow color, has an intensely acid reaction, and, 
*U.S. Agr. Rept. for 1858, U.S. Patent Office Rept., 1859, p. 249. 
+ Mamm. Adirondack Reg., 1886, pp. 76-78. 
