GENERAL NOTES 
259 
GENERAL NOTES 
SOME RANDOM NOTES ON MAMMALS OF MINNESOTA 
Lutreola vison. Mink— In the fall of 1920, a farmer living on the Jefferson 
Highway between Elk River and Big Lake, Sherburne County, found a mink 
on this road that had evidently been killed by an auto. This was on a cement 
paved road. 
Mephitis sp. Skunk. — ^There seems to be more or less disagreement as to the 
skunk’s ability to discharge its scent under difficulty. I have taken and helped 
to take about fifty skunks from their dens in the last seven years. All were taken 
out alive and about one-half without their discharging any scent. There seems 
to be one, and only one, way to handle them safely *, that is, grasp both hind feet 
and the tail firmly in one hand and pull them from the hole until the head appears, 
then grasp them around the neck. As long as they are held in this manner they 
cannot discharge scent, if the hind legs and tail are held straight out behind and 
a steady pull is maintained to prevent the back from “humping.” They may 
then be placed in a sack and carried in the hand with the sack hanging free. Do 
not let them touch the ground or bump them. I have never had one try to bite, 
but would not take any chance, as I have known of their biting, and the bite is 
no joke. 
Marmota monax rufescens. Woodchuck. — It seems to be not generally known 
that woodchucks climb trees. This was quite a surprise to me as I never con- 
sidered this worthy of making notes on. The only time that I can give any defi- 
nite information on is as follows: In the summer of 1917, while building fence, 1 
saw a woodchuck fifty feet up in a basswood tree. 1 remember this because I 
threw my hammer at it and the the hammer lodged in a crotch of a limb on which 
the “chuck” was sitting and I had to climb the tree to get it. — Bernard Bailey, 
Elk River, Minnesota. 
TREE-CLIMBING WOODCHUCKS 
Mr. Harold St. John’s article in the Journal of Mammalogy for November, on 
the tree-climbing woodchuck, came to me very much in the nature of a surprise. 
Years ago, as a boy, in Ontario County, New York, I repeatedly saw woodchucks 
“treed” by dogs, not infrequently to a height of at least ten feet, usually on the 
trunk of a tree of small diameter. Others with whom I used to discuss such 
experiences spoke of them as more or less commonplace. I had, therefore, 
assumed that while woodchucks were not arboreal by preference, they readily 
took refuge in small trees, when surprised at some distance from burrow or rock 
pile. — B. S. Bowdish, Demarest, N. J. 
THE SUBSPECIES OF WOODCHUCK IN VERMONT 
In connection with an article by Harold St. John in the November, 1921, issue 
of the Journal of Mammalogy, there is pictured a w'oodchuck, photographed as 
it was climbing a tree, and under it is the name Marmota monax prehlorum. The 
photograph was taken at Hartland, Vermont. Possibly this name was used 
because the subspecies of woodchuck mentioned is assigned to central Vermont 
