1878.] 
Notices of Books , 
i37 
United States Geological Survey. Miscellaneous Publications. 
No. 8. Fur-bearing Animals : A Monograph of North 
American Mustelidce. By Elliot Coues. Washington : 
Government Printing Office. ■ 
We have here a most valuable monograph of a group of animals 
not merely important on account of the furs they yield, but 
interesting to the naturalist from many strange points in their 
character and habits. Our notice is first claimed by that most 
unsavoury beast the skunk, Mephitis mepliitica. The genus 
Mephitis , and the American species in particular, their outward 
and inward structure, geographical distribution, and habits are 
described with elaborate care. The offensive secretion whose 
horrible properties have not been exaggerated by popular tradi- 
tion, and the excretory organs or “ atomisers ” for its ejection 
and distribution in the atmosphere, have been examined by Dr. 
J. M. Warren, who, undeterred alike by the dreadful odour, and 
by the possibility of anti-vivisedlionist denunciations, examined 
the glands in a living specimen which had been placed under 
the influence of chloric ether. The fluid does not appear to 
have been hitherto submitted to chemical examination, but we 
trust that before long some enterprising student will ascertain 
its properties and its “ constitution.” It is described as being 
phosphorescent, of an altogether indescribable odour, at once 
pungent, penetrating, and intensely nauseating. Both men and 
dogs have been permanently blinded in consequence of a drop 
having come in contact with the eye-ball. According to Sir John 
Richardson a dead skunk, thrown over the stockades of a trading 
post, produced instant nausea in several women in a house with 
closed doors upwards of a hundred yards distant. The vulgar 
notion that the offensive liquid is the urine of the animal is 
utterly unfounded. As regards the distance to which this fluid 
can be propelled the author remarks that “ the squirt reaches 
several (authors say from four to fourteen) feet, while the aura 
is readily perceptible at distances to be best expressed in fractions 
of a mile. 
The authority and the reasoning of Waterton, notwithstanding, 
there is no doubt but that this creature is fully aware of the 
offensiveness of its secretion to other species and uses it as a 
defensive weapon. “ Its heedless familiarity, its temerity in 
pushing into places which other animals instinctively shun as 
dangerous, and its indisposition to seek safety by hasty retreat, 
are evident results of its confidence in the extraordinary means 
of defence with which it is provided.” In the woods of Nicaragua 
Mr. Belt repeatedly observed the calm assurance of the skunk, 
who goes leisurely along holding up his white tail as a danger- 
flag for none to come within the range of his nauseous artillery.” * 
But this animal, it is now known, possesses a far more 
