Chapter XII: Part 12

Their diet is fully as varied as that of others of the weasel kind, but is made up mainly of insects and other forms injurious to agriculture, including grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, and larvæ of many kinds. They feed also on flesh whenever possible and prey on wood rats, mice of many kinds, small ground squirrels, small birds and their eggs, young chickens, lizards, salamanders, and crawfish. This carnivorous diet is further varied with mushrooms, peanuts, persimmons, cactus fruit, and other small fruits. Sometimes the animals locate about occupied habitations in primitive communities, where they give good service by killing the house rats, mice, and cockroaches on the premises. On one occasion a spotted skunk was detected cunningly removing the downy chicks from under a brooding hen without disturbing her.

In comparison with the other skunks these little animals are extremely agile. They are strictly nocturnal and when pursued at night by dogs will climb to safety in a tree like a squirrel. When caught in a trap they struggle and fight far more vigorously than their big relatives. They usually carry the tail in a somewhat elevated position, but when danger threatens hold it upright like a warning signal. If the enemy fails to take heed they shoot two little spraylike jets of liquid bearing the usual offensive skunk odor, and the victim retires without honor.

In writing of these skunks about the Valley of Mexico, in 1628, Dr. Hernandez tells us that “the powerful arm which they use when in peril is the insupportable gas they throw out behind which condenses the surrounding atmosphere so that, as one grave missionary says, it appears as though one could feel it.”

That the little spotted skunk is subject to rabies and has communicated it to many men in the West is unquestionable. It usually bites men who are sleeping on the ground in its haunts, as they commonly do on the western stock ranges.

I have personally known of several instances in northern Arizona of men being bitten by them. The head, face, and hands, being uncovered, are the points attacked. One man in the mountains south of Winslow, Arizona, was bitten on the top of his head in April, 1910, but paid no attention to the slight wound until two months later when he began to have spasms. He then hurried to town and died in great agony the next day. The year following a man in the same district was bitten in the face, and seizing the animal threw it from him in such a manner that it fell on his brother and bit him before he awakened. Both men were given the Pasteur treatment and had no further trouble.

On New Year’s night of 1906, while I was at the village of Cape San Lucas, at the extreme southern end of the Peninsula of Lower California, a large-sized old male spotted skunk entered the open door of a neighboring house and bit through the upper lip of a little girl sleeping on the floor. Her screams brought her father to the rescue, and with a well-aimed blow he killed the offender. The next morning the skunk was brought to me and added to my collection. As I left a few days later I never learned the result of this bite, but while there was informed that a man had died the previous year from a similar bite. The occasional instances of this kind are remembered and appear more numerous than they are in fact. For years many men have slept in the open where these animals abound, without being molested. It is interesting to find that when the voyager Duhaut-Cilly visited the Cape in 1826, the natives feared these skunks because they entered houses at night, biting people and infecting them with hydrophobia.

The little spotted skunks have extremely animated, playful natures, as I have had several occasions to observe. Two instances serve to illustrate this. Once at the mouth of a canyon at the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley, California, I camped several days at a deserted ranch. At night I spread my blankets on the bare floor of the house, from which the doors were gone. Under it led several burrows of some animal which I at first supposed to be a ground squirrel. Each night while there I was awakened by the sound of little footfalls padding rapidly about over the floor on which I was sleeping, and in the dim light from the moon could see two or three little spotted skunks pursuing one another around me like playful kittens. At the slightest movement on my part they dashed out the door and into their dens under the house. As there was no food of any kind in this room, it was evident that the little fellows were there for a frolic on the smooth board floor.

On another occasion in the mountains of San Luis Potosi, on the Mexican table-land, I found a spring to which bears were coming for water at night. As the bears here appeared to be strictly nocturnal. I ensconced myself in the evening with a dark lantern, amid some small bushes, against a large pine log which sloped downward to the bottom of the gulch near the spring, with the plan to welcome any bears which might come in. An hour or more after dark the clinking rattle of small stones on the far side of the gulch indicated the presence of some animal. The light from the lantern was flashed on the spot and the rifle lowered with exasperation as, running back and forth, turning over stones in search of insects, a spotted skunk was revealed. The movements of this unwelcome visitor were extremely light and graceful, and in my interest in watching them, for a time I forgot the bear. Two or three hours passed and the skunk tired of the hillside and came down to the spring, where he found the offal from a deer which I had placed there for bait. This gave him more to do, and after I had listened to him worry the meat for awhile, I turned on the light and was entertained by the sight thus revealed. The skunk appeared to have a persistent desire to drag away the offal many times his weight. He would seize the edge of one of the lungs and after a hard struggle would get it up on one edge, when the burden would turn over with a flap, whirling the skunk flat on his back each time. Immediately scrambling to his feet, he would give the meat a fierce shake of resentment and repeat the performance.

After a long time the moon arose and the skunk could be plainly seen running back and forth playfully, now biting at the meat and now turning over stones apparently in sheer exuberance of spirit. Then he suddenly mounted the lower end of the log and came galloping up it until he was close to my shoulder. There he stopped and, coming as near as possible, extended his nose within a few inches of my face, and for minute or more stood trying to satisfy himself about this strange object. Satisfied at last, he turned and galloped back down the log and resumed his antics in the gulch, finally working close to the bank three or four yards below me. There he found many small stones and had a fine time rattling them about until I decided that with this disturbing presence I should have little chance for other game. Finding a convenient stone, and locating the skunk as well as possible from the sounds, I tossed it over to try and frighten him away. My aim was too true, for the characteristic skunk retort filled the air with suffocating fumes and I immediately lost interest in further bear hunting.

The track is much like that of the fox squirrel, but usually the fore feet are a little, or quite, one behind the other and, of course, much smaller. No tail mark is ever seen (see pages 542 and 549).]

=THE COMMON SKUNK= (=Mephitis mephitis= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 558_)

Probably no American mammal is more generally known and less popular than the skunk. This current odium is due wholly to its possession of a scent sac of malodorous fluid, which it distributes with prompt accuracy when annoyed. The possession of this method of defense is common to all skunks. The term “pole-cat,” sometimes given to all kinds of skunks, is the misuse of a name given Old World martens of several species and to the Cape pole-cat, a South African animal which in form and markings, including the plumelike tail, is remarkably like some of our smaller skunks.

In the preceding article an account was given of the spotted skunks, smallest of the three groups into which these animals are divided. The common skunk and its relatives form another group, which contains some of the larger species of their kind, some of them weighing up to ten pounds or more. These are the typical skunks, so familiar in most parts of the United States, and distinguished by the disproportionately large size of the posterior half of the body and the long, plumelike tail.

The common skunk, with its closely related species, is generally distributed in all varieties of country, except in deep forests and on waterless desert plains. It ranges from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific and from Hudson Bay and Great Slave Lake southward to the highlands of Guatemala. The vertical range extends from sea-level up to above timberline in Mexico, where I found one living in a burrow it had dug under a rock at 13,800 feet altitude on the Cofre de Perote, Vera Cruz.

Skunks are most common in areas of mixed woodland and fields, in valley bottoms, and along the brushy borders of creeks and rocky canyons. One of their marked characteristics is a fondness for the vicinity of man. They frequently visit his premises, taking up quarters beneath outbuildings or even under the house itself.

Any convenient shelter appears to satisfy them for a home, and they will occupy the deserted burrows of other animals, small cavities among the rocks, a hollow log, or a hole dug by themselves. A warm nest of grass and leaves is made at the end of the den, where the single litter of young, containing from four to ten, is born in April or May. As soon as the young are old enough they follow the mother, keeping close behind her, often in a long single file along a trail. They are mainly nocturnal, but in summer the mother frequently starts out on an excursion with her young an hour or two before sunset and they may remain abroad all night.

The young family remains united through the following winter, which accounts for finding at times from eight to a dozen in a den. In all the northern parts of their range they hibernate during the two to four months of severest cold weather, coming out sometimes during mild periods. When the season of hibernation ends the family scatters and mating begins. One solitary skunk was found in Canada hibernating in the same burrow, but in a separate chamber, with a woodchuck, evidently an unbidden guest.

The exaggerated pads of the squirrel foot are a strong feature of this track. It is typical in the pairing of the fore feet, much more so than that of the gray squirrel. There is never a tail mark in this track (see pages 547 and 561).]

As in the case of their relatives, the common skunks are omnivorous, but feed mainly upon insects and rodents injurious to agriculture. They are known to eat great quantities of grasshoppers, besides crickets, cicadas, May beetles, wasps, and larvæ of many kinds. One killed in New Mexico had its stomach crammed with honey bees. Wherever possible they prey upon small rodents, as mice, wood rats, and small spermophiles. To these may be added ground-nesting birds and their eggs, lizards, turtle eggs, snakes, frogs, salamanders, fish, crustaceans, and numerous small fruits. Now and then they visit the farmers’ chicken yards with such disastrous consequences that in many country districts the animals are killed at sight.

It is pleasing to record that a more intelligent view of their real value to farmers, through their destruction of farm pests, is rapidly gaining ground, and they are now being protected in many States. One of their worst traits is their destructiveness to breeding game birds, both upland species, and especially the waterfowl.

Skunks walk on the soles of their feet instead of on their toes, as do so many mammals. The common skunks are wholly terrestrial and move with the deliberation of one without fear of personal violence or of having his dignity assailed. Long experience has taught them that the right of way is theirs. As they amble slowly along, the tail is carried slightly elevated, and when the owner is suspicious of attack, it is raised and the hairs hang drooping like a great plume, conspicuous and unmistakable. If the disturber still refuses to take the hint, a rear view is promptly presented and a discharge made that puts most enemies to flight. Some have thought that the odorous liquid is scattered by the long hairs of the tail, but in fact it is ejected in fine jets from two little tubes connected with the scent sacs on each side of the vent.

Illustrations of the arrangement of this track when the animal is foraging and traveling are shown on page 581.]

When mildly annoyed the big skunks stamp their front feet on the ground and utter little growls of displeasure. By some effort they can be urged into a retreat which may take the form of a clumsy gallop. They are known occasionally to swim streams voluntarily, and even to cross rivers, probably urged by the instinct that so often forces animals of all kinds to move to new feeding grounds.

Although usually safe from annoyance through the protective armament, many skunks, especially the young, each year fall victim to natural enemies, including wolves, coyotes, foxes, badgers, and great horned owls.

The flesh of the skunk is a favorite food among certain tribes of Canadian Indians, and many white men have pronounced it exceedingly palatable, even claiming its superiority over the flesh of domestic fowls. In the narrative of his expedition through the Canadian wilderness many years ago, the naturalist Drummond recorded that when the party was about a day’s journey from Carleton House it had the good fortune to kill a skunk, “which afforded us a comfortable meal.” In the Valley of Mexico I found the natives prize the flesh of these animals as a cure for a certain loathsome disease.

It is well known that large skunks are often extremely fat. The oil produced from them is clear and is said to have unusually penetrating qualities. For many years there was a demand for this oil for various medicinal purposes.

During recent years the fur of skunks has come into great demand, and good prices are paid for prime skins. The animals are so numerous and the catch is so large that they now rank among the most valuable of our fur-bearers. They are gentle animals which readily become domesticated and breed freely in confinement, and many efforts are being made to establish skunk farms. Success in such farming depends wholly on the outlay for upkeep. Skunk farming will probably pay better as a side line, like chickens on the ordinary farm, than to establish regular fur farms. The scent sac may be removed by a slight surgical operation, so there need be no trouble from that source. Common skunks when taken young make affectionate and entertaining pets. They become as tame and playful as kittens, and are vastly more intelligent and interesting.

=THE HOG-NOSED SKUNK= (=Conepatus mesoleucus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 559_)

The third and last group of skunks contains a number of species showing well-marked differences from the two groups already described. The species vary in size, but among them is included the largest of all skunks. All are characterized by comparatively short hair, especially on the tail, and this appendage lacks the plumelike appearance observed in other skunks. The nose is prolonged into a distinct “snout,” naked on the top and sides and evidently used for rooting in the earth after the manner of a pig. In addition, the front feet are armed with long, heavy claws, and the front legs and shoulders are provided with a strong muscular development for digging, as in a badger. This likeness has led to the use in some places of the appropriate name “badger skunk” for these animals. The single white stripe along the back, and including the tail, is a common pattern with these skunks, but this marking is considerably varied, as in the common species.

Its weasel kinship is seen in the wolverine track. Occasionally, not always, its fifth toe shows. The track is not plantigrade, and a single track is easily mistaken for that of a wolf.]

The hog-nosed skunks are the only representatives of the skunk tribe in South America, where various species occupy a large part of the continent. They appear to form a South American group of mammals which has extended its range northward through Central America, Mexico, and across the border of the United States to central Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. In Mexico they range from sea-level to above 10,000 feet altitude on the mountains of the interior.

The hair on these skunks is coarse and harsh, lacking the qualities which render the coats of their northern relatives so valuable. Where their range coincides with that of the common skunks, the local distribution of the two is practically the same. They live along the bottom-lands of watercourses, where vegetation is abundant and the supply of food most plentiful, or in canyons and on rocky mountain slopes.

For shelter they dig their own burrows, usually in a bank, or under a rock, or the roots of a tree, but do not hesitate to take possession of the deserted burrows of other animals, or of natural cavities among the rocks. Owing to their strictly nocturnal habits, they are much less frequently seen than the common skunks, even in localities where they are numerous. In fact it is only within the last few years that their presence in many parts of the southwestern border has become known.

The unusual space between the fore and hind feet in the middle of the left series is often seen. Sometimes the tail mark is there and sometimes not. Sometimes the trail is like that of a small mink. The toes seldom show (see pages 554 and 572).]

Although both the little spotted and common skunks live mainly on insects, the hog-nosed skunks are even more insectivorous in their feeding habits. The bare snout appears to be used constantly for the purpose of rooting out beetles, grubs, and larvæ of various kinds from the ground.

On the highlands of Mexico I have many times camped in localities where patches of ground were rooted up nightly by these skunks to a depth of two or three inches as thoroughly as might have been done by small pigs. In such places I repeatedly failed to capture them by traps baited with meat, the insects and grubs they were finding apparently being more attractive food. I have had similar failures in trapping for coyotes with meat bait in localities where they were feeding fat on swarms of large beetles and crickets. The persistence with which the hog-nosed skunks hunt insects renders them a valuable aid to farmers.

In addition to grasshoppers, crickets, beetles, flies, grubs, and other larvæ, and many other insects, they are known to eat wood rats, mice, and the small fruit of cactuses and other plants. The stomach of one of these skunks examined in Texas contained about 400 beetles.

One Texas naturalist writes that he has lost a number of young kids which had their noses bitten off, and in one instance caught one of these skunks mutilating a kid in this manner. He also states that they pull down and eat corn when it is in the “roasting-ear” stage.

Far less is known concerning the habits of hog-nosed skunks than of the other species of these animals. The number of young appears to be small, judging from the record of a single embryo found in one animal and in another instance of two young found in a nest located in a hollow stump. They have a curiously stupid, sluggish manner and have even less vivacity than the somewhat sedate common skunk. No use is made of their skins in this country or in Mexico, but the gigantic natives of Patagonia make robes of them which are worn like great cloaks.

=THE NINE-BANDED ARMADILLO= (=Dasypus novemcincta= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 559_)

Armadillos are distinguished from other mammals by having the nearly, or quite, hairless skin developed into a bony armor covering the upperparts of the head and body and all of the tail. They lack teeth in the front of both upper and lower jaws, and are members of the group of toothless animals which includes the ant-eaters. The insects they feed on are licked up by the sticky surface of their extensile tongues.

In the remote past many species of armadillos, some of gigantic size, roamed the plains of South America, and a number of small species still exist there. These animals are peculiar to America and have their center of abundance in the southern continent.

The nine-banded species ranges over an enormous territory and is subdivided into a number of geographic races, living from southern Texas through Mexico and Central America to Argentina. In Mexico its vertical distribution extends from sea-level up to an altitude of about 10,000 feet on the mountains of the interior. Like the hog-nosed skunk, it no doubt originated as a member of the South American fauna and has spread northward to its present limits. It is one of the larger of the living representatives of this curious group of animals and reaches a weight of from twelve to fifteen pounds.

As might be surmised from its appearance, the armadillo is a stupid animal, living a monotonous life of restricted activities. Its sight and hearing are poor, and the armored skin gives it a stiff-legged gait and immobile body. From these characteristics, combined with the small head hung low on a short neck, it has in life an odd resemblance in both form and motion to a small pig; it jogs along in its trails or from one feeding place to another with the same little stiff trotting gait and self-centered air. If alarmed it will break into a clumsy gallop, but moves so slowly that it may be overtaken by a man on foot. So poor is its eyesight that a person may approach openly within about thirty yards before being noticed.

When alarmed the armadillo immediately runs to the shelter of its burrow, but may easily be caught in one’s hands, especially if intercepted on the way to its den. When caught it will struggle to escape, and while it may coil up in a ball in the presence of a dog or other mammal foe, I never saw one try to protect itself in this way. While presumably serving for protective purposes, the armor is flexible on the sides of the body, and I have found the remains of many armadillos where they had been killed and eaten by coyotes or other predatory beasts. The armor would no doubt be sufficient protection to enable them to escape to cover from the attack of birds of prey. They are mainly nocturnal animals, but are frequently seen abroad by day and in some places appear to be out equally by day or night.

This armadillo lives by preference amid the cover afforded by forests, brushy jungle, tall grass, or other vegetation. In the midst of such shelter it usually digs its own burrow a few yards deep in a bank or hill slope, beneath a stump, under the roots of a tree, or a rock, or even on level ground. It will also occupy small caves in limestone rock. At times it shows a piglike fondness for a mud bath, and the prints of its armor may be found where it has wallowed in miry spots.

Well-beaten and conspicuous trails lead from the burrows often for half a mile or more, frequently branching through the thickets in various directions. Armadillo burrows sometimes accommodate strange neighbors, as was shown by one in Texas which was dug out, and in addition to containing the owner in his den at the end, was found to be occupied by a four-foot rattlesnake and a half-grown cottontail rabbit, each in a side chamber of its own.

The food of the armadillo consists almost entirely of many species of insects, among which ants appear to predominate. When searching for food the animals become so intent that they may be cautiously approached and closely observed or captured by hand. They root about among fallen leaves and other loose vegetation and soft earth, now and then digging up some hidden grub or beetle. At night they visit newly plowed fields in their haunts, rooting in the mellow earth. They are accused of digging up plants in gardens during their nocturnal wanderings, and in Texas have been charged with robbing hens’ nests of eggs, and of reducing the supply of wild turkeys and quail by breaking up the nests, all of which needs confirmation. Their method of feeding appears to vary considerably, as they have been seen rising on their hind legs to secure small caterpillars infesting large weeds.

The insect food eaten by the nine-banded armadillo in Texas, as known from examination of stomach contents, covers a wide range of insect and other small life, including many species of grasshoppers, crickets, roaches, caterpillars, beetles, ants, spiders, centipedes, and earthworms. As the list includes also wireworms and other noxious species, these inoffensive animals deserve thorough protection as a most useful aid to the farmer.

Some time from February to April each year, litters of from four to eight young are born. They have their eyes open at birth, and the armor is soft and flexible like fine leather. The hardening of the skin into a bony armor is progressive, continuing until after the animal fully completes its growth. As soon as the young are able to travel they trot along with the old one during her foraging trips.

Early one afternoon, when riding along a trail in the heavy forest of southern Oaxaca, accompanied by an Indian boy and a pack of dogs, I suddenly came upon an old armadillo and eight young about two-thirds grown. They had heard our approach and stood motionless in a compact little group half hidden in the grass. I had barely time to stop my horse when the dogs spied them and made a rush. The armadillos darted into the undergrowth in every direction like a litter of pigs, and with the exception of two caught by the dogs gained safe refuge in their burrow. This we found dug in the level ground about fifty yards from where we encountered them.

The Maya Indians of the Peninsula of Yucatan have a legend that the black-headed vulture (_Catharista atrata_) in old age changes into an armadillo. The tale runs, that when a vulture becomes very, very old it notifies its companions that the time has come and alights before a hole in the ground that resembles the den of an armadillo. The other vultures bring food and the old one remains there for a long time. Its wings disappear, the feathers are lost, and when the change is complete the newly created armadillo enters the hole and begins its new life. If skepticism is expressed as to this metamorphosis, the Indians point out as proof of the legend the similarity between the appearance of the bald pate of the vulture and that of the armadillo.

The typical track of a mink is as in the bottom set at the left, which also illustrates the tail mark. Twelve to twenty-four inches are usually cleared at each bound. This illustration is greatly reduced from natural size (see opposite page and pages 555 and 575).]

=THE RING-TAILED CAT= (=Bassariscus astutus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 562_)

The mild climate and the proximity of the Southwestern States to Mexico and the tropics brings within our borders numerous strange types of wild life. Of these the ring-tailed cat is one of the most strikingly marked and interesting. In the United States it is known by several other names, including “civet cat,” “coon cat,” and “band-tailed cat.” In Mexico it still bears the old Aztec name cacomixtle, except in Lower California, where it is the “babisuri.” It is about the size of a large cat but with proportionately longer and slenderer body, shorter legs, and longer tail. The alternating bands of black and white on the tail proclaim its relationship, not to the cat, to which it has no kinship, but to the raccoon, which has a tail similarly marked. Few mammals possess such a beautifully formed head and face, and its large, mild eyes give it a vivid expression of intelligence.

The ring-tailed cat occupies areas under such differing climates as to produce geographic races, but none of them vary strikingly from the typical animal here illustrated. They range from Oregon, Nevada, southern Utah, Colorado, and Texas south to Costa Rica. In Mexico they occur from near sealevel up to an altitude of about 10,000 feet. While chiefly rock-inhabiting species, they sometimes live in the forests and as a rule make their dens in caves and deep crevices, but sometimes in hollow trees or about houses. Their young, from three to four in number, are born in May or June.

In the Southwest they frequent some of the ruined cliff dwellings, and I have found them haunting many of the ancient ruins of Mexico. Their presence in little caves and other sheltered spots along cliffs and rock walls bordering canyons or on mountain slopes may usually be known by an examination of the fine dust which accumulates in sheltered places. Whenever present their delicate cat-like tracks will be found where they have been hunting mice or other small game.

Strictly nocturnal, they do not sally forth from their dens until darkness is complete. During the night they are restless and frequently wander far and wide in search of food, and apparently at times merely to satisfy a spirit of inquiry. Their inquisitive nature frequently leads them to explore the streets of towns and cities on the Mexican table-land, filled though these places are with dogs. At daybreak, tracks left in the dusty streets tell the story of their wanderings, as they often do also in the case of opossums.

Although this animal has five toes on each foot, only four appear in each track. This illustration, which is practically natural size, shows the usual arrangement of the track. The hind feet are, of course, in advance. Variations of arrangement are shown on the opposite page (see also pages 555 and 575).]

One morning in February, 1893, soon after sunrise, I chanced to pass through a little wooded square in the City of Mexico and saw a lot of boys pursue and capture one of these animals which, having overstayed his time, had been surprised by daybreak. This wanderer might have had its den in some house in the neighborhood, since one of its known habits is to take up its abode about houses, even in the midst of towns. A friend living in the City of Mexico informed me that after having been annoyed for some time by noises on the roof at night, he investigated and discovered a female cacomixtle with partly grown young snugly located in a nest placed in a narrow space between the tile roof and the ceiling. In southern Texas the animals live on the brush-grown plains under conditions very different from those usually chosen.

Like its relative the raccoon, the cacomixtle, with a taste for a varied fare, takes whatever edibles come its way. It stalks wood rats, mice, and even bats amid their rocky haunts and birds in bushes and low trees. About the southern end of the Mexican table-land it is much disliked for its robberies of chicken roosts, especially when these are located in trees. Insects of many kinds, larvæ, and centipedes are eaten, as well as a great variety of fruits, including that of the pear-leaved cactus, and dates, figs, and green corn.

Ring-tailed cats regularly locate among rocky ledges, neighboring orchards, or other cultivated areas where they may gather some of the bounty provided by man. I found them more plentiful among the broken lava cliffs bordering date palm orchards in Lower California than in any other place. When the dates were ripening they prowled about under the palms after dark with gray foxes and spotted skunks to pick up the fallen fruit. They sometimes uttered a complaining cry and when caught in a trap would bark almost like a little dog, or occasionally utter a vicious scream of mixed fear and rage.

Being an intelligent animal, the cacomixtle is readily tamed and makes a most interesting pet. During the early years of gold mining in California, when many men were living in rude cabins in the mountains, the prevalence of mice often attracted these “cats” to take up their residence there. Often the owner of the premises and the mouser struck up a friendly relationship and the cacomixtle, becoming as free and friendly about the place as a real cat, kept it entirely clear from mice. I have had first-hand accounts of these tame individuals from miners who had harbored them in this way for months. These accounts always gave the impression that the animal was somewhat playful and mischievous and most attractive to have about the premises. All agreed that it was extremely fond of sugar.

The hand-like paws are unmistakable. The tail mark appears. The absence of claw on the thumb of the hind foot is usually seen.]

=THE OREGON MOLE= (=Scapanus townsendi= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 563_)

The effect on mammals of a narrowly specialized mode of life is well illustrated in the mole. It is an expertly constructed living mechanism for tunneling through the earth. The pointed nose, short neck, compactly and powerfully built cylindrical body, with ribs strongly braced to withstand pressure, and the short, paddlelike hands armed with strong claws for digging are all fitted for a single purpose. Eyes and ears are of little service in an underground life, so they have become practically obsolete; the fur has been modified to a compact velvety coat which will lie either front or back with equal facility and thus relieve any friction from the walls of the tunneled roads, no matter which way the animal travels.

Moles are circumpolar in distribution, being found from England to Japan in the Old World and on both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the New World, where they occur only in North America. On this continent they are limited mainly to the United States and southern Canada, extending across the Mexican border only in two limited areas at the extreme east and west. Their distribution is not continuous across the continent, but is broken by a broad unoccupied belt formed by the arid interior, including the Great Basin. The home of the Oregon mole lies in the humid area west of the Cascade Mountains in Washington, Oregon, and extreme northwestern California. Closely related forms range from eastern Oregon southward through California to the San Pedro Martir Mountains in Lower California, and others north into British Columbia.

The Oregon mole is the largest and handsomest member of the group in America and perhaps in the world. Its skin, a velvety coat of nearly black fur, often with a purplish sheen, now brings a higher price in the market than that of any other species. Its size and the beauty of its dark coat distinguish it from any other mole.

Where the soil is loose the mole practically swims through it, urged forward by powerful impulses of its “hands” and feet. This is the common mode of travel near the top of the ground, where the course is marked by the lightly upheaved and broken surface. When working at a greater depth and in more compact soil the mole must dig its way and dispose of the loose earth by pushing it along the tunnel to an outlet at the surface through which it is thrust to form a mound similar to the “dumps” of that other great miner, the pocket gopher.

On account of this similarity in mode of life, moles and pocket gophers are sometimes confused by persons not familiar with the two animals. The resemblance ends in this apparent likeness, for the pocket gophers belong to the great order Rodentia, or gnawing animals, while the moles are of the Insectivora, or insect-eaters.

The superbly forested region inhabited by Oregon moles is so well watered that few places, even on high mountain slopes, are too dry for them to occupy. These animals are generally distributed, and their hills may be seen in the midst of the great coniferous forests as well as in the open valleys.

They are most abundant in open grassy areas, especially in meadows and in the bottoms of canyons and similar places, where the damp rich soil affords a plentiful supply of earthworms, grubs, and insects on which to feed. Like other moles, they lead lives of great activity and almost constant hard labor. During damp weather they work near the surface, but in dry periods as the upper soil hardens they follow their prey to lower levels. A hard shower, however, always brings an outburst of activity as they reoccupy the upper soil and throw up a multitude of new mounds. They have the habit of regularly coming to the surface to hunt food during the night. This is no doubt coincident with the swarming up to the surface of earthworms on which the moles feed. At such times many are captured by owls, cats, and other beasts of prey.

The runways of moles close along the surface, shown by well-marked ridges, are for hunting purposes, and the lower tunnels, from which the earth in the mounds is brought, are for traveling and lead to the nest chamber. The deep tunnels of the Oregon mole sometimes extend considerable distances along fences, or other surface cover, which afford more or less protection. Such tunnels are a kind of highway often used by several moles and also by shrews and field mice. The system of tunnels of the moles over a considerable area often intersect and are used more or less in common. As a result more than twenty moles have been trapped at a single point in one of these underground roads.

They make an intricate system of many-branched tunnels, the courses of which are usually marked by series of mounds varying from four to ten inches high and five to twenty inches wide and often scattered over meadows or other fields from two to six feet apart. Owing to the persistence with which the moles raise their mounds everywhere in the occupied parts of their territory, they have become a serious and costly pest. In meadows the knives of mowing machines are dulled by them, and in towns lawns are disfigured by their undesirable activities. As a consequence they have now fallen under the ban and are classed with other mammals which have shown their lack of ability to fit in satisfactorily with the changed conditions brought to their ancient territory by civilized man. Under natural conditions their activities were undoubtedly entirely beneficial.

They appear to have but a single litter of young, numbering from one to four, each year. These are born in March and grow so rapidly that by the last of May they are working in the tunnels and are scarcely distinguishable from the adults.

The recent discovery that the Oregon moleskin is valuable for its fur will give such an incentive to trapping that there is little doubt the boys of the State within a few years will reduce the numbers of the animal and thus control its injury to agriculture. The market for the skins appears practically unlimited, judging by trade reports, one dealer in Brooklyn stating that he dressed 4,000,000 imported European moleskins in 1916.

THE STAR-NOSED MOLE (Condylura cristata)

(_For illustration, see page 563_)

The star-nosed mole, known in parts of Maine as the “gopher,” is peculiar among the moles in having a fringe around the end of its nose formed by twenty-two short fleshy tentacles. A less-marked character is in the proportionately long tail, which becomes greatly enlarged in fall and remains in this condition during the winter months. Otherwise the external appearance of this species is much like that of the common moles of America and the Old World.

The star-nosed mole is found from southern Labrador, the southern end of Hudson Bay, and southeastern Manitoba south along the Atlantic coast to Georgia and in the interior down the Alleghenies to North Carolina and to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Throughout this area it ranges irregularly and much yet remains to be learned about the details of its distribution and habits.

Ordinarily solitary, these moles at times are so numerous in limited areas that they appear to form colonies. Such gatherings probably mean an unusually rich feeding ground, which makes it unnecessary for the young to disperse to outlying locations, as is the habit of moles and most other mammals.

The star-nosed mole has a strong preference for damp and even marshy or swampy locations. It frequents low-lying meadows, the borders of streams, and grassy swamps, where its underground burrows alternate with open surface runways among grass roots and other matted vegetation. It spends far more time above ground than the other moles, and not infrequently swims among flooded cat-tails and other vegetation and in winter has been seen swimming under the ice.

The track of the raccoon is very distinctive and usually easy to find, because it frequents the mud by the water side. Sometimes, to a casual glance, the track of a small coon is taken for that of a large muskrat, but their differences are very obvious.]

Like others of its kind, this mole is amazingly powerful in proportion to its size. It persistently adds to its surface ridges, and in constantly extending its deeper tunnels must dig loose earth and dispose of it by forcing it up through an outlet to form the mounds which mark the course of its travels. Where the soil is loose it readily forces it aside with its compact body and paddle-shaped hands. In pushing up the little piles of earth and in the ridges raised when burrowing close to the surface it sometimes injures meadows and other cultivated land. Occasionally it wanders away from the fields and invades lawns and gardens, where the only injury it does is in the disturbance of the soil.

Its nests are compact little balls of fine grass, weeds, or leaves in dry underground chambers excavated in its burrows. The nests are a foot or two underground, but above the level of the water, sometimes under a stump and again in a knoll or bank. One nest containing five young was found in Maryland in an old woodshed under several inches of chips. This location and its choice of a site for its nest under a stump in a field or in a dry knoll are clear indications of a kind of intelligence which even the lowliest animals appear to have in caring for their young.

The star-nosed mole is full of the restless energy so necessary in a mammal which must come across its food by more or less haphazard tunneling through the soil. It is active both summer and winter. In dry weather as the moisture near the surface decreases the soil hardens and earthworms and other subterranean life seek deeper levels. The mole follows them, only to return with them nearer the surface with a renewal of the moisture. In winter it sometimes comes out and travels slowly about on top of the snow, ready to burrow out of sight at once, however, at the sound of approaching footsteps.

The food of the star-nose, like that of most other moles, is made up mainly of earthworms, white grubs, cutworms, wireworms, and other underground insects. In captivity, before eating a worm or other flesh food offered, it first feels of it with the little raylike organs of touch on its nose. It is difficult to surmise the real value of these “feelers,” for it would seem that the acute sense of smell so common to mammals should do better service.

Aside from its disturbance of the surface soil by its ridges and mounds, the star-nosed mole does no direct injury, and its life is largely passed in the useful task of searching out and destroying insects. Indirectly it causes some injury to root crops, plants of various kinds, and fruit trees, by providing tunnels along which meadow and pine mice travel to commit the ravages which on circumstantial evidence are charged to the mole.

=THE COMMON SHREW= (=Sorex personatus= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 566_)

Many interesting small mammals are nocturnal or lead such obscure and hidden lives that they are rarely observed except by naturalists. Of these are the numerous species of shrews, which include the smallest mammals in the world. These tiny beasts all live among the vegetation and debris on the surface of the ground or in little burrows below. With the moles they are members of the order Insectivora and depend mainly on insects and meat for food. Despite their minute size, they are possessed of an indomitable courage and ferocity, which leads them without hesitation to attack and kill mice many times their own weight.

The genus _Sorex_, of which the common shrew is a member, is circumpolar in distribution, the various species ranging through England, the European mainland, Asia, and North America as far south as Guatemala.

The common shrew is a purely North American animal, occupying all the northern part of the continent from the Arctic shores of Alaska and Canada south to northern Nevada, South Dakota, Illinois, and Pennsylvania, and along the Allegheny and high Rocky Mountains to North Carolina and New Mexico. Its vertical range extends from the seacoast up to timberline in the Rocky Mountains.

The common shrew is the smallest of the mammals in all the northern parts of this continent, and one marvels at the possibility of such a tiny morsel of flesh and blood withstanding the rigors of the arctic winters. It measures about four inches in total length and weighs about forty-five grains; the body and tail are slender, the nose long and sharp, and the rim of the ears shows a little above the dense velvety fur. By these characters it may be distinguished from the larger, more heavily proportioned (and darker-colored) short-tailed shrews which abound with it in certain parts of its range. Its smaller size and grayish brown color are the main superficial differences between it and other American members of the same genus. The climatic differences in its wide range have developed several geographic races, none of which, however, show strongly marked characters.

This shrew appears to have a most catholic taste, so far as its surroundings are concerned, for it appears to frequent every type of situation where shelter and food can be found. It abounds among the peat beds and sphagnum mosses of the desolate barrens bordering on the Arctic coast, as well as amid the rotten stumps, old logs, fallen leaves, and other vegetable debris on the floor of the forests farther south. It will be found also in the rank matted vegetation about marshes, in old fields and occasional sphagnum swamps in the southern parts of its range.

The little tunneled runways of these shrews form a network in the beds of moss in a sphagnum swamp near Washington. In the forest the animals always seek the cover afforded by fallen logs, slabs of bark, or anything else that will give protection. On the coast of New Jersey they live so near the sea that an extra high tide forces them to mount the drift logs on the salt meadows for safety. They often make little burrows in the soft earth under the roots of a tree, a stump, or a log.

The hind foot of the skunk rarely shows the claws in the track. The diagonal set during the gallop is characteristic (see pages 558 and 580).]

Their nests are small balls of dry leaves, grasses, or other soft vegetable material placed snugly under a log or in a hollow stump, burrow, or other good retreat, where they appear to have two or more litters of from six to ten young during the summer and fall.

As in the other shrews, the food of the common species consists mainly of insects, larvæ, worms, and obtainable flesh; but in winter and possibly at other seasons many kinds of food are eaten, including insects, meat, fat, flour, and seeds. During the years I passed at St. Michael, on the coast of Bering Sea, the beginning of winter always brought into the storehouses and dwellings a swarm of field mice, lemmings, and these shrews. The food requirements of all appeared to be the same, and all fed freely on the flour and other accessible stores. Dozen of the shrews were killed in the houses every winter.

Occasionally I caught and kept one captive for a time to observe its habits. It would be extremely restless and equally active by day or night. The small eyes appeared of little service, but the long, flexible snout was used constantly and served as the main reliance of the little beast for information as to the outside world.

Wherever they travel these shrews utilize the runways of the field mice or other small animals and make little runs of their own only where necessary. Aside from a faint squeak, I have never heard them utter a sound, but other observers credit them with series of fine twittering notes apparently uttered as a song.

The common shrew is a solitary animal of so morose a disposition that if two are placed in a cage together they almost immediately fall upon one another with tooth and nail, and the victor devours the body of its companion at a single meal. The digestion of shrews is so rapid and the call for food so incessant that it requires constant activity to keep the demand satisfied.

After the winter snow arrived in the North I found many tunnels of these shrews running just under its surface and raising it a little in a slight but distinctly rounded ridge. Such tunnels wandered widely and on the ice of the Yukon River I traced one of them more than a mile and repeatedly saw them crossing the river from bank to bank. It was surprising to note the ability of the little travelers under the surface to keep in so nearly a direct line for long distances.

At times these little adventurers make similar tunnels in the snow far out on the sea ice. The mythology of the Eskimos contains accounts of many supernatural animals which a lone hunter may meet and which have the power to do him deadly harm. Among these the “sea shrew” is one of the most malignant. Its appearance is described as exactly like that of the common land shrew, but it is said to live on the ice at sea, and if it sees a hunter to dart at him through the air, pierce the skin, and, after running all through the body with incredible rapidity, to enter the man’s heart and kill him. In consequence of this belief the Eskimo hunters were in mortal terror if they chanced to encounter a stray shrew on the sea ice. I knew one hunter who suddenly meeting one on the ice stood motionless for hours until the shrew wandered out of sight. He then hastened home and all the other hunters agreed he had had a lucky escape.

This trail combines the characteristics of the skunk with those of a squirrel. At first it looks like the track of a stubby-toed squirrel, but the five-inch toe on the front foot is plainly seen. The frequent pairing of the fore paws is important. There is no tail mark (see pages 558 and 576).]

=THE SHORT-TAILED SHREW= (=Blarina brevicauda= and its relatives)

(_For illustration, see page 566_)

Several groups of species or genera of the little mouselike animals known as shrews are peculiar to North America. Of these one of the most numerous and best known is the short-tailed shrew. It is a dark-colored animal much more heavily proportioned, larger, and with a shorter tail than the common shrew. Its fur is so thick and velvety that it is confused by many people with the mole, despite its smaller size.