IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
309 
are expert in catching pocket gophers aq,d I have several times found 
them in the holes apparently in pursuit of the gopher. In winter they 
frequently catch rabbits and I have found tracks in the fresh snow 
leading to the hiding place of the cottontail, while the blood-stained 
remnant of the carcass of that animal told the story of a tragedy. On 
several occasions I have known the little skunks to follow the cottontail 
into a box trap where both were caught together. 
The animals seem to be fond of apples and will sometimes eat tomatoes. 
I have seen them scratch out the seeds from a pumpkin and devour them 
and have known them to eat cabbage when hungry. They eat honey 
very greedily when available. The captives soon learned to eat almost 
anything in the way of table scraps in much the same way as the ordi- 
nary family cat. 
During the five years that we have cultivated skunks and tried to 
. become intimately acquainted with them we have used every inducement 
to attract them, even to releasing captives. The hens have all this time 
roosted in houses not more than three feet high and on roosts not more 
than eighteen inches above ground. Excepting a few extremely cold 
nights the doors have been constantly open and poultry has been easily 
available. We have desired to know the real truth, not to justify a 
preconceived prejudice. The longer the experiment is conducted and the 
greater the number of individuals under observation the stronger be- 
comes the conviction that the skunk is a valuable friend in reducing the 
rodent pests and destroying insects, especially grasshoppers, crickets 
and June beetles; and that the poultry killing habit is accidental and 
unusual and confined to a small percentage of the individuals of either 
species of skunks. 
