APRIL, 1902. LIST WITH NOTES OF THE MAMMALS OF DODGE CO., WIS. 121 
blackberry bushes. These bushes hid his view, so he selected a 
near-by oak as his sentinel tower, and approaching the den one 
would be sure to see him up his tree, at a height of about 8 feet, 
from which he would slide down, when you approached too near, 
and scamper away to his den. 
Fiber zihcthiciis (Muskrat.) 
An abundant resident of our flooded marshes and found spar- 
ingly along streams and ditches. In the former place he erects 
his mud house, in the latter his home is in the banks, with the en- 
trance under water. 
Some winters large numbers leave the marshes and wander 
over the country. Of 120 such wanderers taken, 90 proved to be 
males. 
Mephitis sp. (Skunk.) 
Our local Skunk is presumably the Northern Plains Skunk — 
M ephitis hiidsonica. 
This animal is common in the county, though rather scarce 
in my immediate neighborhood, due to persistent trapping. 
The Skunk is nocturnal, though on two occasions I have seen 
them abroad during daylight. One late October day I saw a jet 
black one run through a pasture, about 3 p. M., and enter one of 
the 6 entrances to an old established Woodchuck colony. As this 
stage of pelage was worth about $5.00 at the time, and being a boy 
trapper in my 'teens, I coveted that particular animal, but my 
work held me down until some time after sunset. I then hastened 
to the place and carefully set a trap at each opening, and there the 
traps remained undisturbed for 4 days. My coveted prize evi- 
dently having left the dens the day he was seen and ere I had my 
traps set. 
The other was seen running along the lake shore on a bright 
June day, and my companion shot it, but not before it had made 
itself known in its own peculiar manner. This one was normally 
marked. 
A series of this mammal shows considerable variation in the 
amount and distribution of the white stripes. One albino has 
come to my notice. 
This is one of our most beneficial mammals, though he does 
occasionally visit the farmers' poultry house. Show me a meadow 
with little holes dug here and there at the roots of the grass, and 
I will prove to you that the meadow is infested with white grubs — 
the larvae of the June bug (Order Coleoptera-genus Lachuos- 
terna) — which are a favorite food of the skunk. Besides grubs he 
