MAMMALIA. 
off, we suffered them successively to come out. As they slowly 
emerged and were walking off, they were killed with coarse shot 
aimed at the shoulders. In the course of half an hour, seven (the 
number contained in the burrow) were obtained; one only was offen- 
sive, and we were enabled without inconvenience to prepare six of 
them for specimens.”* But it is explicitly mentioned that “they 
were killed with coarse shot aimed at the shoulders,” and this fact 
explains why six out of seven did not smell, for some of the shot 
doubtless hit the cord. 
Skunks caught in dead-falls rarely ever emit scent, and for the 
simple reason that their backs are broken and their hinder parts 
paralyzed. 
A veteran fox trapper, Mr. C. L. Whitman, of Weston, Vermont, 
rids his traps of Skunks by slipping a wire noose over their heads 
and choking them to death. He claims that they rarely smell when 
thus dealt with.f 
When caught in the vicinity of water, they are easily drowned, and 
when so treated never smell. 
Some common fallacies concerning Skunks. 
ist. What the Scent is. 
It was for many years believed, even amongst naturalists, that the 
scent of the Skunk was its urine, and this belief is still widely prev- 
alent with the masses of our population. The urine ol the Skunk 
has no offensive or even characteristic odor, the scent being the 
secretion of a pair of highly developed and specialized anal glands, 
which have already been sufficiently described. (See p. 76.) 
2d. How it is Scattered. 
The vulgar notion that the Skunk scatters its scent with its tail 
was formerly so universal and wide spread that no less renowned a 
* Quadrupeds of North America, vol. I, 1846, p. 324. 
fForest and Stream, Feb. 17, 1876. Quoted by Coues in Fur-bearing Animals, 1877, p. 217. 
