CLASS I. MAMMALIA: 
OEDER 5. CARNIVORA. 
295 
Mount Praliu to Blederan, a village on the declivity of tliat hill, where the temperature was more 
moderate. It was tied to a small stake, and moved about quietly, burrowiug the ground with its 
snout and feet, as if searching for food, without noticing the bystanders or making violent efforts 
to disengage itself' It ate voraciously of earth-worms Avhich were brought to it, and lield one 
extremity of a worm in its claws while its teeth Avere employed in tearing the other. After it had 
eaten ten or twelve, it became drowsy, made a small groove in the earth, in which it placed its 
snout, and, having deliberately composed itself, soon slept soundly. 
America — ^the Zonlla of the Cape and Mydaus oV the Asiatic islands, sometimes called skunks, 
really belonging to other and distinct genera. Three species are known in the United States, and 
several in Mexico and South America. Thus the race extends from Hudson's Bay to the Straits 
of Magellan, They resenible the badgers in being nearly plantigrade, and having the anterior 
claws long and adapted for digging. There is a similarity also in the distribution of the colors, 
the dark shades forming the ground, and the light ones the maijJrings. The hair of the body is 
long, and still longer on the tail, which being carried erect, has a plume-like appearance. Some 
of the species burrow in the ground, and others live in the fissures of rocks, several of them often 
associating together. They subsist chiefly on birds' eggs, insects, small quadrupeds, and poultry; 
they also add frogs, mice, and lizards to their bill of fare when opportunity offers. Their size is 
about that of the badger. They move slowly, and seldom attempt to escape from man by flight. 
The form is elegant, and the colors, disposed in longitudinal bands, are strikingly contrasted. 
These circumstances, with the long, flowing hair, would give these animals a beautiful appearance, 
were not all agreeable associations rendered impossible by their abominable stench. The great 
distinction of the genus is the possession of two glands beneath the anus, from which they eject, 
to a considerable distance, a liquid possessing the revolting odor of the polecat, with a suffocating 
and overpowering smell of garlic. This is alike intolerable to man and animals. Dogs retreat from 
this abominable liquid, vomiting and rolling themselves, as if in agony, on the earth, and it is 
said even cattle bellow with distress when the air is strongly impregnated with it. A skunk will 
taint the atmosphere for half a mile in every direction, and clothes infested by the liquid are 
ruined, as they never part with the disgusting fragrance. This gift is the animal's shield and 
buckler, and nature, in her infinitely diversified arts of defense, appears nowhere — not in trendh- 
ent teeth, or rending claws; not in overpowering strength, or ferocity, or even deadly venom — 
