76 
MAMMALIA. 
The flesh of the Skunk is white, tender and sweet, and is delicious 
eating. It is not unlike chicken, but is more delicate, and its taste is 
particularly agreeable. Being, happily, free from any of that “ squeam- 
ishness” which Audubon and Bachman lament as preventing them 
from tasting the meat of this animal, I am able to speak on this point 
from ample personal experience — having eaten its flesh cooked in a 
variety of ways, boiled, broiled, roasted, fried, and fricasseed — and 
am prepared to assert that a more “ toothsome bit ” than a broiled 
Skunk is hard to get, and rarely finds its way to the table of the epi- 
cure. 
The fore-feet of the Skunk are provided with long claws, which he 
employs in excavating his burrows and in digging after mice, which 
latter occupation consumes a large share of his time. He is also 
armed with a fine set of sharp teeth, that are capable of inflicting 
severe wounds; still, his chief weapon of defence lies in the secretion 
of a pair of anal glands, that lie on either side of the rectum, 
and are imbedded in a dense, gizzard-like mass of muscle which 
serves to compress them so forcibly that the contained fluid may 
be ejected to the distance of four or five metres (approximately 
13 to 165 feet). Each sac is furnished with a single duct that 
leads into a prominent nipple-like papilla that is capable of being 
protruded from the anus, and by means ol which the direction 
of the jet is governed. The secretion is a clear limpid fluid of an 
amber or golden yellow color, has an intensely acid reaction, and, in 
the evening, is slightly luminous. On standing, in a bottle, a floccu- 
lent, whitish precipitate separates and falls to the bottom. The fluid 
sometimes shows a decided greenish cast, and it always possesses 
an odor that is characteristic, and in some respects unique. Its 
all-pervading, penetrating, and lasting properties are too well known 
to require more than passing comment. I have known the scent 
to become strikingly apparent in every part of a well-closed house, 
in winter, within five minutes’ time after a Skunk had been killed 
at a distance of an hundred metres (about twenty rods) ! The 
