THE NORTHWESTERN SKUNK, MEPHITIS SPISSIGRADA. 



ALLAN BROOKS. 



This is one of the largest of the West- 

 ern skunks, which differs from those found 

 in the Eastern States in its much larger 

 size, the different nattern of the coloration 

 of the tail and the formation of the tail. 

 That in the Eastern skunks tapers to a 

 point, but in the skunks of the prairies and 

 mountains it increases in bushiness to the 

 end, which is square. 



Skunks eat great numbers of grasshop- 

 pers ; in fact, when those are to be had 

 they live on them almost entirely, but in 

 the spring they are very destructive to the 



usual gait is a curious one, the imprints of 

 the 4 paws being in a line, and equidistant 

 from one another, the row of tracks run- 

 ning diagonally to the course of the animal. 



These large skunks seldom frequent 

 heavy timber, except when following the 

 course of a large river during the salmon 

 run. I have noticed them at high eleva- 

 tions. In the Selkirk mountains I saw their 

 signs above 6,000 feet, where, like the griz- 

 zlies, they were digging up ground squir- 

 rels. 



On the coast during the salmon run they 



THE NORTHWESTERN SKUNK. MEPHITIS SPISSIGRADA. (BANGS.) 



nests of all birds that breed on or near the 

 ground. They will cover 4 to 8 miles in 

 their nightly peregrinations, carefully 

 working all likely places for nests and 

 coveys of young birds. During the fall 

 and winter they subsist almost entirely on 

 field mice, being too clumsy to capture 

 game ; but that will not balance the harm 

 they do in the breeding season. 



In spite of their strength they seldom 

 pull out of a fairly strong trap, and do 

 not seem so much addicted to eating off 

 the trapped paw as minks and smaller 

 skunks are. They often curl up and appa- 

 rently go to sleep after being caught. 



The track of a skunk when going at its 



resort to the rivers, hauling the fish up 

 into the log jams through the night and 

 gorging themselves through the day. They 

 then get very fat, the ordinary weight of 

 an adult then being 10 to 16 pounds. 



In old individuals the white on the back 

 and tail becomes strongly tinged with yel- 

 low, sometimes turning to a uniform tawny 

 color. The fur in young animals is good, 

 especially early in the season, even in 

 August ; but old ones are coarse and 

 woolly. The markings of large skunks in 

 British Columbia are regular, and I never 

 saw any but the ordinary type of coloration 

 as represented in the drawing. 



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