SKUNK, a representative of several genera of small carnivorous mammals of the weasel family (lifystelidcr), of which they, with the badgers, constitute the sub-family Melina., characterized by having elongated toes with blunt non-retractile claws and no webs. The true skunks are notorious for the large size of the anal glands, and the offensive odor of their secretion. They are always black, marked by variously arranged and sharply contrasting bands and spots of white, and are exclusively American. Three genera are recognized. Mephitis includes the common 'typical skunks of relatively large size, with the skull arched above and the face short and truncated. There are 34 teeth with the formula: i.
c. f, p. 4, m. 4. The body is elongated, and usually much arched; the tail long and thickly covered with long, fine hair; the head small, with thick, blunt snout; the legs short, and the paws comparatively large, with five in completely divided toes. The power, charac teristic in some degree of all the Mustelitite, of forcibly discharging the fetid secretion of the anal glands is enormously developed. Ten species have been differentiated in North Amer ica ranging throughout the continent, but as they differ little in habit, the common skunk (M. mephitica) may be taken as typical of the whole genus. This species, as now limited, is confined to the Eastern States, where It is ex ceedingly common, particularly in the farming districts of New England. It is about the size of a cat and has fur at a glossy black; on the forehead is a patch of white diverging into two lines which extend the whole length of the back and meet again in the beautiful bushy tail. The tip of the tail is also white, and, as it is usually carried erect, the white is regarded by some naturalists as a '
structive to poultry, but offsets this by clear ing out houses of rats and mice.
Its movements are slow and leisurely. It never attempts to run away if pursued, for, feeble and defenseless as it looks, it is most efficiently protected by the possession of a nauseous fluid, the discharge of which neither man nor beast will wittingly provoke. When attacked the skunk turns its back, erects its tail, and, by means of a muscular contraction, ejects the contents of its anal pouches frcim the protruding orifices of a pair of ducts with a force that carries them to a distance of 10 or 15 feet. So penetrating is the evil ordor of this fluid that it may sometimes be perceptible a mile off, and so persistent is it that clothes defiled by it can rarely be entirely purified. The fluid will excite severe inflammation of the eyes, and cases are cited of Indians who have thus lost their eyesight. Few carnivorous animals care to attack the skunk, and this immunity results in a life of comparative ease, with a loss of agility and an assumption of corpulency in striking contrast to the slender and active weasels. The skunk is hunted for its fur, which is in considerable demand. During the fall and winter skunk-hunting is an industry of con siderable importance in Maine, and that State alone yields annually between 100,000 and 200,000 skins, most of which are shipped to Philadelphia where they are prepared for ship ment to Paris, chiefly in the guise of '