Indeed their owner appeared all the while to he looking past 
• 
or through rather than at_ me. I must confess to a feeling 
of deep relief when he finally turned and fled although 
there was not, of course, the slightest danger of his 
attacking me. I suppose he mistook me for the stump of a 
tree. 
Skunks 
The skunks have "been enjoying their annual feast of 
and Turtles' 
turtles' eggs and on a larger scale even than usual, to 
nests 
• 
judge of the number of shells I found to-day in the sandy 
fields and openings near Ball 1 s Hill. I had supposed that 
the Skunk discovers the admirably concealed nest of the 
Turtle by his sense of smell but something that I observed 
this afternoon appears to cast doubt on this theory. 
When I was last at Ball's Hill (on June 3) I set out 
five-plants of the orange milk-weed in the field near the 
wood-shed, scattering them about in different places and 
with a trowel digging deep but narrow holes for the long, 
carrot-like roots. On visiting them to-day I found that all 
but one had been found and dug up by the Skunks. Neither 
the plants nor their roots had been eaten or even separated 
from the loose earth that had been thrown out with them. 
In each case the Skunk had gone to the very bottom of the 
excavation which I had previously made and in no instance 
had he dug other holes in the immediate vicinity. How could 
he have discovered these small, isolated plants scattered 
about amid a tangle of weeds and grass and,having found 
them, why did he go to the trouble of digging them up? 
