876 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



needs to get back to a given point, I should say its home-range 

 was less than 5 miles in diameter, and that it did not by any 

 means occupy it to the exclusion of others of the kind; these 

 individual ranges may overlap like a number of rings thrown 

 at random on the ground and will be most numerous where 

 food is most abundant. 



Dr. Merriam makes some remarks that bear on this 

 topic :^ "I find that many hunters and trappers believe that 

 the Mink does not make long journeys, but remains in the 

 vicinity of its nest, to which it returns every twenty-four hours 

 or thereabouts. My experience, in certain cases, at least proved 

 the contrary." He then gives an account of a large Mink 

 that reappeared at intervals of two or three weeks and adds: 

 " This and other more or less similar experiences have convinced 

 me that the Mink frequently, if not commonly, makes long 

 excursions like the Otter, following one watercourse and then 

 another, and returning over the same route, and I believe that 

 they have a number of nests scattered at convenient intervals 

 along these circuits. This habit may be confined to the old 

 males, but whether it is so or not remains to be proven." 



ABUN- The Mink is one of our most plentiful fur-bearers. I 



should guess that there is one pair of them to every square mile 

 in Manitoba; less, no ddubt in the prairie region, but a suffi- 

 cient surplus in the timber and lake regions to keep up the 

 average. There seems to be little change in the number of 

 Mink during recent years. I saw as many and as much sign 

 in 1904 as I did in 1882. During the last fifty years the Hud- 

 son's Bay Company has exported 40,000 to 90,000 Mink skins 

 each year from the Northwest. On exceptional years the 

 number has far exceeded these highest figures, but the supply 

 continues about the same. Reckoned by area, about one- 

 thirtieth of these come from Manitoba. 



sociA- So far as known, the only exceptions to solitary life among 



BILITY . . . . 



Minks are during the mating season, and while the young are 



' Mam. Adh., 1884, pp. 65-6. 



