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VERTEBEATA. 
to have provided any creature with, more effective protection than is bestowed by this syringe 
upon the skunk. We surely cannot doubt the fertility of nature's resources when we find a whole 
race of animals enjoying life, liberty, and a free pass, through motives addressed exclusively to 
the nose. It may indeed be said that all this belongs rather to the ridiculous than the sublime, and 
that the skunk — four-legged or otherwise — is always and everywhere an object of mingled aver- 
sion and contempt. The reply is, that being what he is, he doubtless enjoys his privilege, and 
may be supposed even to triumph in the general disgust he excites among those who are not of 
his genus. 
The CoMMOK Skunk of the United States, Mepkitis Americana^ or Mephitis chincha, or Viverra 
jmtorius — the Seecawk of the Cree Indians, the Fiskatta of Kalm, or, according to Charlevoix, 
the Enfant du diable — has a body about seventeen inches long, with a tail, including the long 
hair, twelve inches. The head is small, the forehead rounded, the body long, fleshy, and widen- 
ing toward the hips; fur long and coarse, with long, glossy hairs intermixed; eyes small, ears 
short and rounded; feet broad, and nails of the fore-feet strong, curved, and sharp. The two anal 
glands are situated on each side of the rectum ; the sack is supposed to contain about three drams 
of the ofiensive liquid. When this is ejected, the tail is carried forward and nearly laid on the back. 
An experienced person, perceiving this sign of preparation, is always carefal to put himself instantly 
out of shooting distance. It is said that the scent is much stronger if the ejection takes place 
when the animal is irritated, and that it is also stronger at night than in the day-time. At night 
the liquid has a luminous appearance, and a stream of it has been compared to a stream of phos- 
phoric light. It possesses a very acrid quality, and dogs and persons into whose eyes it has been 
thrown have been rendered blind. 
The species vary much in the markings; indeed, as in the case of striped grasses, it is difiicult 
to find two precisely alike. In general, the color is a blackish brown, with a narrow stripe of yel- 
lowish white along the nose to the head; a large patch of white on the nape of the neck, and 
extending downward in a stripe on each side of the back, and a stripe of white on each side of the 
tail for three fourths of its length. The tail is often tipped with white. But as we have said, these 
markings are variously modified. It is believed that when both parents are alike in color and 
markings, the young ones are similarly colored; but if the parents are dissimilar, the offspring is 
diversified.* 
The skunk is a prolific animal, bringing forth from four to eight at a birth. Sometimes as 
many as fifteen sku^nks have been found in one burrow. During the winter, in the cold parts o\ 
the country, these animals keep close in their burrows, in a dozing but not torpid state. At the 
south, they are active the year round. They are cleanly in their habits, and never suffer them- 
selves to be soiled by their own effluvia any more than the rattlesnake by his own venom. Some 
wild animals, as well as Indians, make prey of the skunk, and we have read in the pages of a 
distinguished naturalist a recommendation of it as "well tasted and savory." This is a common 
animal in nearly ' all the Atlantic States : depending upon its peculiar battery for defense, it is 
often seen walking slowly along, its tail erect, with an air of conscious security or impudent defi- 
ance, and if it perceives a man it does not always take the trouble to get out of his way ; the man 
is most likely to beat a retreat; indeed, a brave man is quite as likely to run fi'om a skunk as a 
lion. The fetid liquid is ejected in small streams, sometimes to the distance of fourteen feet, and 
usually with great accuracy of aim. As we have stated, the odor is stronger at night than during 
* The following careful description is from Sir John Richardson's Fauna JBoreali-Americaiia : " The skunk is low on 
its legs, with a broad fleshy body, white forehead, and the general aspect rather of a wolverene than of a marten ; 
eyes small ; ears short and round. A narrow white mesial line runs from the tip of the nose to the occiput, where it 
dilates into a broad white mark. It is again narrowed, and continues so until it passes the shoulders, when it forks, 
the branches running along the sides, and becoming much broader as they recede from each other. They approach 
posteriorly, and unite on the rump, becoming at the same time narrovyer. In some few specimens the white stripes 
do not unite behind, but disappear on the flanks. The black dorsal space inckided by the stripes is egg-shaped, the 
narrow end of which is toward the shoulders. The sides of the head and all the under parts are black. The hair on 
the body is long. The tail is covered with very long hair, and has generally two broad longitudinal white stripes 
above on a black ground. Sometimes the colors of the tail are irregularly mixed ; its under surface is black. The 
claws on the fore-feet are very strong and long, being titted for digging, and very unlike those of martens." 
