THAT FAMOUS ESSENCE PEDDLER. 173 



make off in the opposite direction ; but if he stopped 

 and called him, he would return at an ambling pace 

 and soon catch up. Frequently the doctor walked to 

 a certain meadow where grasshoppers were plenty, 

 and there the little fellow would revel in his favorite 

 food. When the grasshoppers jumped he would jump 

 after them, and frequently he would have as many as 

 three ia his mouth and two under his fore paws at a 

 time ; in fact, he would often eat so many that his 

 distended stomach would drag on the ground. When 

 young, the courageous little creature would often 

 tackle a horned beetle, and he got many a nip in 

 consequence. When he caught a mouse he would 

 devour it all, and growl and stamp his feet if any one 

 came near while he was thus engaged. He was a 

 playful animal, and the doctor records a curious habit 

 that he had of clawing at his trousers for fun, and 

 then scampering off with the hope of a chase. 



Regarding the skunk's most dreaded perfume, the 

 doctor gives us the follovring concise account : " His 

 chief weapon of defense lies in the secretion of a pair 

 of anal glands that lie on either side of the rectum 

 and are imbedded in a dense, gizzardlike mass of 

 muscle, which serves to compress them so forcibly 

 that the contained liquid may be ejected to the dis- 

 tance of from thirteen to sixteen and a half feet. 

 Each pouch is furnished with a single duet that leads 



