6 PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM vol. 122 



it was supplanted, within the last century, by the smaller southern race, 

 M. V. mink, which also has a propensity for seacoasts. 



The various early accounts of the sea mink prompted Seton (1921) 

 to call attention to the possibility of still obtaining a specimen. "It 

 was the custom in the small hotels of the region," he wrote, "to have 

 mounted any local animal of unusual interest in point of size, etc. 

 These rarities were kept in glass cases as parlor ornaments or as bar- 

 room accessories." As a result of Seton's plea, an unusually large 

 mounted mink specimen was located at Lubec, in extreme eastern 

 Maine near the Bay of Fundy, in the possession of Clarence H. Clark. 



A Supposed Sea Mink Specimen 



Clarence H. Clark — businessman, politician, historian, and county 

 commissioner of Washington County — had over the years built up 

 a considerable private collection of the fauna and flora of eastern 

 Maine, housed in the upper part of his residence at Lubec. Included 

 was a very large, light brown (and much faded) mounted specimen 

 alleged to be the sea mink. Norton (1930, p. 27) first brought it to the 

 attention of the scientific public. He saw the specimen in 1924 and 

 was told by Clark that it was taken at Campobello Island, New 

 Brunswick, in 1894.^ This mink, mounted on a wooden base, was 

 prepared in the old-fashioned way, with the skull and leg bones in 

 place. The mouth is slightly open, permitting examination of the 

 forward teeth. This and other items in the Clark collection were 

 described in giowng terms by Keene (1929), who published a picture 

 of the mink and was at pains to point out that it was "beyond price" 

 and was sought by many of the nation's museums; however, Clark did 

 not wish to part with it. 



In 1935, Good^vin published a photograph (his plate IV, b) of the 

 specimen, from Clarence Clark, depicting it as the sea-mink. Stupka, 

 in the early 1930s, examined and photographed the same mount, 

 and his picture was subsequently published by Leopold (1936). 

 Mau's and Parks (1964) offered still another photograph, by the 

 Portland Society of Natural History.^ Mansueti (1954) presented 

 his own drawing of the sea mink, posed beside the smaller northeastern 

 mink of today. 



By 1964, the Clark collection had come into the possession of 

 James C. Sullivan, then of Dennysville, Maine. He was anxious to 



2 Goodwin (1935, p. 70), in discussing the same specimen, says that Clark 

 reported it taken "by a neighbor of his near the Bay of Fundy about 1874." 

 This may have referred to the Joncsport specimen of "about 1880" mentioned 

 by Norton (1930, p. 31). 



' It should be pointed out that the measurements given by Mairs and Parks 

 are not those of the Clark specimen under discussion but rather are the "probable 

 dimensions" of M. macrodon as computed by Seton (1929, vol. 2, p. 562). 



