166 



FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AXD FOREST. 



large, bushy, long-haired, black, and terminates in a 

 bufE-white tuft. 



He is the most deliberate little beast that ever 

 prowled along the highway. A moonlit night is 

 apparently his dehght, and if we meet 

 him then he is more easily recogmzed 

 by his measured tread and cat-like fig- 

 ure than by his color. 

 Even when frightened 

 he does not break into 

 much more than a hob- 

 bling gallop, and a horse 

 at an easy trot would 

 outstrip him.* JSTot '^', 

 infrequently he is run '^^ '^'^^^ showing the wwte marks on 



^ ^ the forehead and flank. 



down in crossing a 



road, and then — well, the country is perfumed within 

 a circle a mile in circumference. As for the horse 

 and wagon, they might as well be buried on the spot. 

 The skunk is not only slow, but remarkably curi- 

 ous. I observed one once, on a moonlit night, in- 

 vestigate a box trap which I had made for squirrels ; 

 he scanned it cautiously first on one side, then on the 

 other, peeped inside, and sniffed along the edges in 

 the same manner as a dog. At length, after appear- 



* One night last summer one followed beside my horse at a 

 slow trot for some distance without making himself disagreeable. 



