104 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



the works of du Pratz, Bossu, or the other descriptive 

 writers of early Louisiana, Dumont excepted. 



The Gulf Indians knew it and named the animal in their 

 own tongue. The Choctaws called it a toni; the Biloxi 

 named it iskixpa. The early French settlers termed it 

 belette, a designation very frequently heard among the 

 French-speaking trappers of the state today, while the 

 Spanish-speaking trappers of the Delacroix Island region 

 give this animal, at times, the Spanish designation of 

 (jarduna. 



Scientifically, the Louisiana mink has been named Mus- 

 tela vison vulgivayus, our animal being given a sub-specific 

 rating because of certain physical differences between it and 

 its relatives in various parts of this continent. The Amer- 

 ican minks include several different geographic forms, dis- 

 tributed over the northern part of North America from the 

 Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the mouths of the Yukon 

 and the Mackenzie rivers to Florida, Texas and Louisiana, 

 but they are not found in the arid southwestern states. 



1 he mink is an inquisitive animal. 



The mink is small, when compared to the majority of 

 fur animals, the length of its head and body being from 

 15 to 18 inches, with a tail measuring 8 to 9 inches, The 

 sexes are alike except that the smaller size of the female 

 will readily identify it. The mink's tail is bushy, tapering 

 at the end, and its ears are quite small, scarcely projecting 

 beyond the adjacent fur of the head. 



The pelage is of a rich dark brown in color, the under- 

 pays being slightly paler than the general upperparts. It 



