SMALLER MAMMALS OF NORTH AMERICA 



575 



unusual appearance. 

 When one encounters a 

 man it shows no fear, 

 but slyly moving from 

 one shelter to another, 

 now advancing and now 

 retreating, examines the 

 stranger carefully before 

 going on its way. As 

 they devote practically 

 their entire lives to the 

 destruction of field mice, 

 they are valuable friends 

 of the farmer and should 

 have his good will and 

 protection. Unfortunately 

 for these weasels, no dis- 

 crimination is shown be- 

 tween them and their 

 larger relatives of more 

 injurious habits. 



Among the natives of 

 Alaska all weasels are 

 looked upon with great 

 respect on account of 

 their prowess as hunters. 

 I found this feeling pe- 

 culiarly strong among the 

 Eskimos, whose existence 

 for ages has depended so 

 largely on the products 

 of the chase. Among 

 them the capture of a 

 weasel meant good luck 

 to the hunter, and to take 

 the rarer least weasel 

 was considered a happy 

 omen. The head and en- 

 tire skin of the least 

 weasel was highly prized 

 for wearing as an amulet 

 or fetich. Young men 

 eagerly purchased them, 

 paying the full value of 

 a prime marten skin in 

 order to wear them as a 

 personal adornment, that 



they might thus become endowed with the hunt- 

 ing prowess of this fierce little carnivore. 

 Fathers often bought them to attach to the 

 belts of their small sons, so that the youthful 

 hunters might become imbued with the spirit 

 of this "little chief" among mammals. 



THE AMERICAN MINK (Mustela vison 



and its relatives) 



(For illustration, sec page ^55) 



In the American mink we have one of the 

 most widely known and valuable fur-bearers of 

 the weasel family. It is a long-bodied animal, 

 but more heavily proportioned than the weasel, 

 and attains a weight of from one and one-half 

 to more than two pounds. It has short legs 

 and walks slowly and rather clumsily with the 

 back arched. When desiring to travel rapidly 

 it moves in a series of rapid easy bounds which 

 it appears able to continue tirelessly. 



the; track of a i^ox 



The size, the small pads, and the set of all feet nearly in one line are 

 strong features, as also is the tail touch 



The minks form a small group of species 

 circumpolar in distribution, and well known in 

 Europe, northern Asia, and in North America. 

 The European animal is closely similar to the 

 North American species and all have the same 

 amphibious habits. The American minks include 

 several different geographic races, which are 

 distributed over all the northern part of the 

 continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific and 

 from the mouths of the Yukon and Mackenzie 

 Rivers to the Gulf coast in tlie United States. 

 They are absent from the arid Southwestern 

 States. 



Few species are more perfectly adapted to a 

 double mode of life than the mink. It is equally 

 at home slyly searching thickets and bottom- 

 land forests for prey or seeking it with otter- 

 like prowess beneath the water. It is a restless 

 animal, active both by day and by night, al- 

 though mainly nocturnal. 



While usually having definite dens to which 

 tliey return, minks wander widely and for so 



