12 



farmers' bulletin 587. 



numerous in many localities to keep field mice in check, and reports 

 from various parts of the country show that close trapping of skunks 

 and other fur animals is often followed by an increase in depreda- 

 t ions by mice. C. W. Douglas, nurseryman, of Waukegan, 111., writing 

 to the Biological Survey in 1906, attributed the abundance of meadow 

 mice in that vicinity directly to the scarcity of skunks, weasels, and 

 other natural enemies. 



Besides meadow mice, skunks destroy also many other injurious 

 native rodents, including white-footed mice, pocket mice, jumping 

 mice, cotton rats, kangaroo rats, wood rats, chipmunks, and rabbits. 



The skunk is especially useful in destroying the rats and mice that 

 commonly infest farm buildings. It makes itself familiar about the 

 premises when these rodents are abundant and preys upon them per- 

 sistently. If not disturbed it will remain until all are destroyed. 



The little spotted skunks are remarkably efficient as destroyers of 

 rats and mice. They are small and nearly like a weasel in shape; they 

 are quick in their movements, and can follow rats and mice into 

 smaller crannies than the ordinary skunk can enter. In Kansas the 

 writer once lived in a house with cellar openings on the outside. The 

 dwelling had been unoccupied for a year and during this time the 

 cellar had been used for storing corn, with the result that the entire 

 house had become infested with rats and mice. A short time after 

 the writer occupied the house it was noticed that a prairie spotted 

 skunk had taken up its quarters in the cellar and night combats with 

 rats were often heard. The skunk was frequently seen, but it was 

 carefully left unmolested. After a few weeks the rats and mice had 

 all been killed or driven away, and the skunk then left the premises. 



There is much similar testimony to the usefulness of skunks as rat 

 catchers. C. J. Maynard 1 says that the Florida spotted skunks are 

 easily domesticated, and they are frequently used in houses for catch- 

 ing mice. Sometimes the animals are captured and the scent glands 

 removed, but they are often simply decoyed about the premises by 

 exposing food, when frequently they take up their abode beneath 

 buildings and become so tame as to enter them in search of their prey. 



UNDESERVED PREJUDICE AGAINST SKUNKS. 



The early settlers of America were acquainted with the European 

 fitchet weasel, and promptly applied its common name ''polecat" to 

 the skunk on account of its odor. The polecat of Europe is far more 

 destructive to poultry and game than are skunks. Its bad reputation 

 was transferred with the name, and circumstances have been unfavor- 

 able for a reversal of opinion. They feed mostly at night when their 

 habits can not be observed, and few persons have undertaken to dis- 

 sect their stomachs. The public are extremely slow to give up preju- 



i Bull. Essex Inst., IV, 1872, p. 140. 



