The efficacy of the secretion as a defensive weapon for the not otherwise formidable animal is greatly enhanced by the distance to which it can be ejected. This is probably as much as twelve or fourteen feet, while the smell itself can be perceived for a comparatively immense distance.
Besides its perfume, the Skunk has yet another claim to careful avoidance: its bite has been known in many cases to produce hydrophobia, in a form quite indistinguishable, according to an American surgeon, Dr. Janeway, from that induced by the bite of a rabid Dog.
An allied species, the Little Striped Skunk,[185] is less than a foot long, and the tail is shorter than the body. The fur is black, and marked with numerous white stripes and spots. It is found in the southern part of the United States, and is said to be readily capable of domestication, proving very serviceable as a Mouser. Of course, under these circumstances, the glands are removed while the animal is young.
The White-backed Skunk[186] is the South American form of the genus. It occurs throughout that Continent as well as in Mexico and the south-western portions of the United States. It is much larger than the northern species, attaining a length of from eighteen inches to two feet, and is further distinguished by its short white tail, which does not exceed nine or ten inches in length, its pig-like snout projecting a full inch beyond the mouth, and its white back sometimes marked by a median black stripe. The rest of the fur is, as usual, black.
Our friend, Mr. Purdie, whose acquaintance with the Skunk in South America has been of the most practical kind, assures us that when about to discharge its secretion, the animal invariably faces round, so as to look its enemy full in the face, throws its tail over its back, and allows the breeze to carry the fluid in the desired direction. This method of discharge seems highly unaccountable, and difficult to reconcile with the anatomical facts; but it would be certainly going too far to say that it is impossible. Dr. Coues, who has repeatedly observed the North American Skunk, states that the animal invariably turns its back to its intended victim.
THE COMMON OTTER.[187]
UNDER VIEW OF SKULL OF COMMON OTTER. (After Coues.)
We now come to the most thoroughly aquatic of the Fissipedia, the sub-family of Otters, animals which, although quite capable of active and unembarrassed movement on land, are yet thoroughly at home only in the water. In accordance with this mode of life, the toes are webbed, and provided with very short claws, and the tail is long, tapering, and flattened, so as to serve the precise purpose of the corresponding appendage in a fish. The length of the head and body is about two feet, that of the tail, one foot five inches. The fur is of a soft brown colour, becoming lighter on the under side of the throat and the breast, and consists of long, coarse, shining hairs, with a short under-fur of fine texture, well calculated to preserve equality of temperature as the animal resorts alternately to land or water. The skull is greatly elongated, and flattened from above downwards; the facial part of it is small, as compared with the brain-containing or cranial part. The region of the skull between the eyes is very narrow, and its floor is wide and thin. In all these points, save the first mentioned, the skull of the Otter approaches that of the Seal. As to the teeth, there is one premolar less on each side of the lower jaw than in the Martens,[188] and both molars and premolars have sharp-pointed cusps, quite like those of the other Mustelidæ.