136 MAMMALS OF UTAH 



desire to kill it, is beyond comprehension ; yet some farmers 

 will actually shoot badgers and at the same time complain 

 that they will have to give up their farms if something is 

 not done with the ground squirrels. 



Mr. J. R. Stringham of Holden, Utah, has written me 

 some very interesting facts concerning the badger. He 

 says: "I saw in June, 1092, a badger walking with her 

 young, twelve miles northwest of Holden. I tried to cap- 

 ture her, but she put up such a fight that I could not, and 

 the young ones got into a hole about twenty-five yards 

 away. Two years ago I caught a very young one in the 

 timber country at the head of Snake Creek canyon on the 

 southeast of Jeff Davis mountain, near Baker, Nevada. It 

 was much less than a year old. Two years ago I followed 

 the tracks of a badger in the snow and found where it 

 had had a fight with two large coyotes. The snow was 

 about sixteen inches deep, and the battle had been long and 

 fierce, the badger apparently being the winner for he had 

 retreated to his den, about two miles distant, without the 

 loss of blood, while the coyotes had lost blood and had made 

 but short distances between' the places where they had 

 stopped to lick their wounds and to rest. This winter has 

 been very well supplied with snow yet we have caught a 

 badger a day, when the sun has come out. Their dens 

 run straight into the side of the wash about four feet, and, 

 apparently have two openings, as the tracks lead from one 

 to the other, a distance of about one hundred feet. Their 

 dens cannot be detected by fresh diggings in the winter, as 

 they never step in the snow if they can help it. On the 

 sixth of January we found a den where the badgers had 

 been traveling all around in the deep snow. We followed 

 one for nearly a mile. I have known of persons having 

 badgers as pets." 



Badger skins are worth from 10 cents to $5.00 each 

 according to size and condition. 



GREAT BASIN SKUNK 



MEPHITIS OCCIDENTALIS MAJOR (Howell) 



Chincha occidentalis major Howell, N. Am. Faun. No. 20, 

 1901, p. 37. 



Description — Color: Much as in occidentalis; white 

 stripes broad, bifurcating near the middle of the back, and 

 extending only a short distance on the tail, which is nearly 

 all black exteriorly. 



