138 Notices of Books. [January, 
dangerous attribute than that of the emission of an execrable 
odour, but which certainly contributes nothing to his defence. 
His bite is usually fatal, inducing a disease very similar to if not 
identical with canine rabies. One remarkable point is that the 
skunk possesses this power, not .when himself attacked with a 
fatal disease, as is the case with the dog, but when appa- 
rently in a normal state of health. Some unsolved questions 
here present themselves. Rabies is said to be not uncommon 
among wolves on the European Continent, and very general 
among jackals in India. Do these animals invariably, or even 
commonly, die of the disease, or are they, like the skunk, 
capable of inflicting a poisoned bite when in good health ? 
Again, is there any authenticated case of idiopathic hydrophobia 
in a cat or in any other feline animal ? The skunk displays 
what may be called gratuitous malignity. Its bite is inflicted 
not in defence of itself or its young, but without any provocation 
and without any prospeCt of advantage. A trapper or a 
traveller may be asleep on the ground of his camp-fire when a 
prowling skunk will stealthily approach the sleeper and bite the 
lobe of his ear or his little finger. Under such circumstances 
as this the majority of the cases of skunk-bite occur, and 
there is only one recorded instance which has not terminated 
fatally. Mephitis gorilla , the Californian species, is equally to 
be dreaded. There almost seems to exist among the Mustelidae 
a “ superfluity of naughtiness ” such as no other of the lower 
animals display, but which are shown by the ermine, the stoat, 
and the pekan in their wholesale slaughter of birds, &c., far 
more than they require for food, and in the useless mischief 
committed by the wolverine or glutton. Of the extraordinary 
intelligence and thievish propensities of this strange animal we 
find here many most surprising but apparently authentic in- 
stances. We are of opinion that no one can read the work of 
Dr. Coues without finding a new light dawn upon him both as 
o the intellectual and the moral faculties of “ brutes.” 
Bulletin of the United States Entomological Commission. On the 
Natural History of the Rocky Mountain Locust and on the 
Habits of the young or unfledged Insects as they occur in 
the more fertile country in which they will hatch the present 
year. No. 2. Washington : Government Printing Office. 
This report, drawn up by the Commissioners, Messrs. C. V. 
Riley, A. S. Packard, Jr., and Cyrus Thomas, gives a full account 
of the habits of the Caloptenus spretus , the Rocky Mountain 
Locust, so as to facilitate arrangements for their destruction. 
The deposition of the eggs, their curious arrangement in the soil, 
