THE CAPE ZORILLA.[182]
An ally both of the Skunks and Badgers, the Zorilla may be said to take the place of the former animals in Africa, through the whole of which continent it extends, reaching also into Asia Minor. The body, which attains a length of about a foot, is moderately stout, of a shining black ground-colour, and marked with white bands and spots. The snout is elongated like that of the South American Skunk (vide infra); the tail is bushy, about eight or nine inches long, and striped or spotted.
The Zorilla lives upon small mammals, birds, and their eggs, as well as amphibia and crustacea. It is a determined enemy to poultry, and entails great loss to the inhabitants of the districts where it is found, but is often tamed, and used to catch Rats and Mice. In the matter of scent, the secretion in its tail-glands is worthy of comparison with that of the Skunk itself.
An allied form is the Indian genus Helictis, a Weasel-like animal with a long body, and of a grey-brown colour, white underneath, and marked along the back with a white stripe. The tail is long and bushy. This animal is found from Nepaul to Java in the south, and Formosa in the east.
THE COMMON SKUNK.[183]
This notorious American species is a stoutly-built animal, with short legs, a long conical head with a truncated snout, and a long bushy tail. The general colour of the fur is black, or nearly so, but on the forehead there is a white streak, and on the neck a white patch, from which two broad bands of the same hue proceed backwards along the upper surface of the body. The length from tip of snout to root of tail is something over a foot; the tail itself is less than a foot in length. The general appearance of the animal is decidedly Badger-like; it has, in fact, a good deal of resemblance both to the Ratel and to the Teledu. As in the Weasel, Ermine, and Polecat, there is one molar on each side of the upper, two on each side the lower jaw; altogether there are thirty-four teeth. It occurs throughout the whole of the temperate portion of North America.
We have mentioned that several of the Weasel family enjoy the distinction of being able to eject a foul-smelling fluid from glands at the root of the tail. In this accomplishment the Skunk is the undoubted chief. It can eject its perfume to a considerable distance, and with unerring aim: and the smell! The “odour of mingled guano and Polecat,” which, according to Mr. Kingsley, distinguishes the ancient Cornish dainty squab-pie, is simply nothing in comparison with the horrible stench emitted by this little animal. It is so durable, that the spot where a Skunk has been killed will often retain the scent for days, or even weeks; indeed, Audubon relates that at one place where a Skunk had been killed in the autumn, the odour was quite perceptible in the following spring after the snow had melted. Clothes defiled with the secretion cannot be thoroughly cleansed by any ordinary means: for even if the scent seems to have disappeared, it will make itself evident every time the wearer goes near a fire, or into the sun. Notwithstanding this, furriers have found out a way for effectually purifying Skunk-skins, which are now a good deal used as furs. In Britain, where the Skunk is not known in the flesh, these furs are called by their right names, but in America, where the inhabitants do not enjoy the same blissful ignorance of this noxious beast, they are dignified with the appellation of “Alaska sable.”
SKUNK.
But the scent of the secretion is not its worst feature. Sir John Richardson quotes Mr. Graham as saying “that he knew several Indians who lost their eyesight in consequence of inflammation, produced by this fluid having been thrown into them by the animal,” and continues, “I have known a dead Skunk, thrown over the stockades of a trading-port, produce instant nausea in several women, in a house with closed doors, upwards of a hundred yards distant.” Dogs often suffer from inflammation of the eyes after being squirted with the fluid, and appear to be almost distracted with the pain. Curiously enough, the secretion has been recommended as a cure for asthma. “The story is told of an asthmatic clergyman who procured the glands of a Skunk, which he kept tightly corked in a smelling-bottle, to be applied to his nose when his symptoms appeared. He believed he had discovered a specific for his distressing malady, and rejoiced thereat; but on one occasion he uncorked his bottle in the pulpit, and drove his congregation out of church.”[184]