THE WAY OF THE SKUNK 



By C. WILLIAM BEEBE 



HE skunk is without 

 doubt the tamest of 

 all our wild animals, 

 and is also the most 

 abundant of the car- 

 nivores, or flesh-eat- 

 ers, near our homes. 

 This is a great 

 achievement, to have thus held its own 

 in the face of ever-advancing and 

 destroying civilization. But the same 

 characteristics which enable it to hold 

 its ground also emancipate it from 

 its wild kindred, and give it a unique 

 position among all animals. Its first 

 cousins, the minks and weasels, all se- 

 crete pungent odors, which are unpleas- 

 ant enough at close range ; but in the 

 skunk the great development of these 

 glands has caused a radical change in 

 its habits of life and even in its physical 

 make-up. 



Watch a mink creeping on its sinuous 

 way, every action and glance full of 

 fierce wildness, each step telling of in- 

 satiable seeking after living, active prey. 

 Show yourself, and, with a demoniacal 

 grin of hatred, the mink shrinks into co- 

 vert. The boldest rat flees in frantic 

 terror at the hint of this animal's pres- 

 ence. 



Now follow a skunk in its wander- 

 ings as it comes out of its hole in early 

 evening, slowly stretching and yawning, 

 and with hesitating, rolling gait ambles 

 along, now and then sniffing in the grass 

 and seizing some sluggish grasshopper 

 or cricket. Fearlessness and confidence 

 are what its gait and manner spell. The 

 world is its debtor, and all creatures it 

 meets are unmolested onlv on evidence 



of good behavior. Far from need of 

 concealment, its furry coat is striped 

 with broad bands of white, signalling in 

 the dusk or in the moonlight, "I 

 am skunk ! Give me room to pass 

 and go in peace ! Trouble me, and 

 beware!" 



Degenerate in muscles and in vitality, 

 the skunk must forego all strenuous 

 hunts and trust to craft and to sudden 

 springs, or else content itself with the 

 humble fare of insects, helpless young 

 birds and poor, easily confused mice. 

 The flesh of the skunk is sweet and 

 toothsome, but few creatures there are 

 who dare attempt to add it to their bill 

 of fare ; a great horned owl or a puma 

 in the extremity of starvation — proba- 

 bly no others. 



Far from wilfully provoking an at- 

 tack, the skunk is usually content to go 

 peacefully on its way, and when one of 

 these creatures becomes accustomed to 

 the sight of an observer, no more inter- 

 esting and indeed safer object of study 

 can be found. 



Depart from the conventional mode 

 of greeting a skunk — hurling a stone in 

 its direction and fleeing — and if the op- 

 portunity presents itself place bits of 

 meat in its way, evening after evening^ 

 and you will soon learn that there is no 

 viciousness in the heart of the skunk. 

 The evening that the gentle animal ap- 

 pears, leading in her train a file of cute 

 infant skunks, you will feel well repaid 

 for the trouble you have taken. Baby 

 skunks, like their elders, soon learn to 

 know their friends, and are far from be- 

 ing at hair-trigger poise, as is generally 

 supposed. 



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