THE PATAGONIAN SKUNK. 
Mephitis humboldtii. 
Plate XV. 
The Skunks are a group of carnivorous animals peculiar to the New World, noted for their extraordinary 
powers of emitting a most offensive odour. This they do, when attacked, by way of defence, and a most 
effectual mode of protection it proves to be, for the aggressor on the little animal is generally glad to make a 
very hasty retreat out of the region of “foul smell” with which it surrounds itself. The best known member 
of this genus is the common American Skunk {Mephitis mephitica), which is abundant throughout the Northern 
Middle and Central States of the American Union, and extends into Canada. It is nocturnal in its habits, and, 
like its near allies, the Weasels and Pole-cats, is addicted to attacking hen-roosts, where it commits great havoc. 
The little animal, however, is seldom molested, for on the near approach of an enemy it ejects a liquid “so 
intolerably offensive that neither man nor beast can withstand it,” The odour of it pervades the whole 
atmosphere for some distance round, and is said to continue for many days, where it lias been once diffused. 
This peculiar fluid, which is secreted by special glands formed for the purpose, and emptying into the rectum, 
is projected forth by the contraction of a strong muscular membrane to a considerable distance, and seldom 
fails to strike the intruder. 
In the Southern States of the American Union, and in Mexico, there occur several other species of Skunk, 
the habits and manners of which are believed not to differ from those of the better known animal. In South 
America, also, a group of Skunks is found, which differs slightly in the dentition and in the form of the muzzle 
from the more Northern Mephitis, and has received from the late Professor Lichtenstein, of Berlin (who 
contributed an elaborate Memoir on this subject to the “Transactions” of the Royal Prussian Academy, 
in 1832), the subgeneric name Thiosmus. 
It is to this latter division that the subject of our present Plate belongs. The Patagonian Skunk was flrst 
described by Dr. Gray, in 1837, from examples procured in the Straits of Magellan by Captain King, and 
deposited in the British Museum. In 1837, a single living specimen of this animal was obtained by the 
Zoological Society, and lived for some months in the Menagerie, where it afforded the opportunity for the 
accompanying portrait being taken. 
