The Skunk and its Habits. 67 



nearly two miles. So persistent is it that articles of clothing 

 retain the smell for years, and the dried bones of a skeleton 

 I picked up in the forest not only retained, but communicated, 

 the stench to a number of birds' skins in the same cabinet.* 

 When pursued by dogs and its foes, it ejects the fluid, in the 

 form of spray, at its pursuers, as was illustrated on one occa- 

 sion when a party of officers belonging to the 22nd Regiment 

 came suddenly on what, to them, appeared "a most strange 

 and beautiful black and white cat!" which they pressed and 

 hounded on their dogs to capture, little aware of the nature of 

 the animal and the consequences of such rashness. Indeed no 

 sooner did the leading dog get within a yard or two than the 

 little creature suddenly stopped, and with head down and tail 

 erect, sent a shower of the liquid straight in its face, when the 

 dog howled most piteously, and making for a swamp close by, 

 plunged into the mire, while simultaneously with the occurrence 

 the surrounding forest became suddenly permeated by a most 

 noisome and abominable odour, which adhered to the clothing 

 for days ; moreover, one of the gentlemen informed me that 

 the bath sponge he used on the following day smelt of the 

 skunk. The compressor muscle in this species, the Hudson's 

 Bay Weasel (M. Hudsonicus), is extremely powerful, seeing 

 that the animal is enabled to propel the contents of the stench 

 bag for ten and, I have been told, even fifteen feet. 



The slow mode of progression of the skunk, unlike any of 

 its tribe, is evidently engendered from an inherited confidence 

 in its power of resisting attacks of its enemies by this formid- 

 able and strange mode of defence. Its eye is said to have 

 a dull aspect, wanting the sparkling vivacity of many of 

 its congeners ; perhaps this may be owing to its hybernating 

 habit, as the eyes of the other non-hybernating skunks of the 

 temperate and sub-torrid regions of the continent, although 



* Dr. Gilpin perceived the odour for nine miles. There is no account- 

 ing for tastes ! he says the Indians " like the odour, willingly eating the 

 tainted meat." — Trans. Inst. Nat. Science of Nova Scotia, vol. ii., p. 68. 



