New York Weasel 



While minks are not social animals, they are, I am certain, 

 much less in the way of putting up pitched battles when they 

 meet than are the majority of the woodland folk. Sometimes 

 half a dozen or more old males will gather about some par- 

 ticularly good fishing hole and to all appearances get along per- 

 fectly together for weeks. 



In winter, when the still waters are frozen, they haunt open 

 rapids and warm springs in the woods, or finding entrance beneath 

 the ice of a closed brook, make extended excursions along the 

 dim buried channel, alternately running beneath the ice and 

 along the brook's border where the falling away of the water 

 has left a narrow strip of unfrozen turf beneath ice and snow. 

 Here they catch small fish and meadow mice, or, tracing the 

 brook's course down to the wider reaches of the river, find larger 

 fish and muskrats to try their strength upon. Water, however, 

 is not essential to the minks' happiness at any season, for they 

 can hunt rabbits all winter long in the snow as successfully as 

 the sable or fisher. 



Varieties of the Mink 



Northern Mink. Putorius -vison (Schreber). Description and range 



as above. 



Southern Mink. P. vison Intreocephalus (Harlan). Length, 28 

 inches. Larger and lighter, dark chestnut-brown, with white 

 spots below as in the last. 

 Range. Coast of Southern New England through the lowlands 



to North Carolina. 



Louisiana Mink. P. vison -vulgivagus (Bangs). Smaller and light 

 yellowish-brown, chin and spots on under parts purer white. 

 Range. Coasts of Louisiana and Texas. 

 Florida Mink. P. lutensis (Bangs). Similar to the last, but still 



smaller, with longer head. 



Range. Salt marshes of Southern States, South Carolina to 

 Florida. 



New York Weasel 



Putorius noveboracensis (Emmons) 



Length. 16 inches. Female 13 inches. 



Description. Tail always more than one-third the total length. 



235 



