* The common species of the Eastern United States (Mephitis mephitica) is black with more or less white on the body and tail. The spotted skunk (Spilogale putorius), native of the Southwestern United States and Mexico, is smaller than the common skunk, and is variously marked with black and white.

Skunk bird, Skunk blackbird (Zoöl.), the bobolink; -- so called because the male, in the breeding season, is black and white, like a skunk. -- Skunk cabbage (Bot.), an American aroid herb (Symplocarpus fœtidus>) having a reddish hornlike spathe in earliest spring, followed by a cluster of large cabbagelike leaves. It exhales a disagreeable odor. Also called swamp cabbage. -- Skunk porpoise. (Zoöl.) See under Porpoise.