38 
JOURNAL OF MAMMALOGY 
and neatly and was removed only after a surprising degree of pressure. By the 
depression of the palatal cartilage I judged the obstruction to have been in posi- 
tion for a considerable time. The animal doubtless engulfed it along with food; 
and by a singular chance, the piece being of precisely the right length, it caught 
and lodged permanently in the position as shown in the sketch. The working 
of the tongue against the unnatural protuberance would serve daily to force it 
more securely into the cups. Beyond an early and temporary irritation the 
animal doubtless suffered but little material disadvantage. The stalk on dis- 
section seemed peculiarly gritty and hard as if undergoing as it were a kind of 
saline petrifaction. Upon examining several skulls of longicauda taken at the 
same time and place the cups or pits of the one under discussion seemed just per- 
ceptibly enlarged by the obstruction. The individual was large of frame (total 
length, 450 mm.; t. vert., 155; foot, 50; d') and in perfect physical condition. — 
J. Dewey Soper, Guelph, Ont. 
ERRONEOUS IDEAS CONCERNING SKUNKS 
It is commonly believed that if a skunk be picked up by the tail he is power- 
less to discharge his scent; it is also believed by many people that if the fluid 
from the scent glands reaches the eye it will cause blindness. Evidence secured 
during this summer seems to demonstrate that neither of these beliefs is tenable. 
August 10, 1920, a member (not the writer) of a Michigan Museum of Zoology 
expedition working near Little Girl's Point in Gogebic County, Michigan, caught 
a nearly grown male skunk {Mephitis hudsonica) in a trap. A wire noose on a 
stick was slipped over the skunk’s head, and after it was drawn tight and the ani- 
mal partly choked, the trap was removed. The skunk, however, was not quite 
dead and to prevent him from getting his feet up on the noose, where he could 
have discharged his scent, the wire was given a slight jerk from time to time. 
At one of these jerks the wire broke. To keep the skunk from escaping while 
a new noose was being made the animal was held up by the tail. At this time he 
was nearly dead from the choking he had received, but he soon began to recover 
and suddenly without any warning he discharged a small quantity of the scent 
fluid into the left eye of his captor. The injured eye smarted sharply and both 
eyes immediately produced many tears. The eye was wiped out with a hand- 
kerchief, for there was no stream of water within a mile, and in about flve minutes 
the smarting passed away, leaving, aside from the odor, no after effects. 
I know of another case where, while a trapper was skinning a skunk, the scent 
fluid was accidentally discharged into the eye. The eye was well bathed in water 
and no permanent damage to the vision resulted. 
Skunks seemingly cannot discharge the scent if held up off the ground by one 
foot where this has been caught in a trap. But if they can get the hind feet 
upon the trap which is holding a front foot the scent can be discharged. An 
instance of this kind happened in Gogebic County on the expedition above men- 
tioned. If often happens, however, that a skunk which is handled slowly and 
cautiously in a trap can be lifted off the ground by a pole and will not discharge 
the scent even though three or all of his feet are on the pole. It may be possible 
then that a skunk might sometimes be held off the ground by the tail without 
disastrous results, but there is no question but that he is fully able to discharge 
the scent under these conditions. — Lee R. Dice, University of Michigan, Ann 
Arbor, Mich. 
