86 



WILD AXIMALh> OP GLACIER NATIONAL PARK. 



than any other fur bearers of the region. Their long, tapering, and 

 powerfully muscular tails serve as propellers as well as rudders, and 

 the animals glide through the water with great swiftness and an 

 almost serpentine grace that distinguishes them even at a distance 

 from the heavy-bodied beaver. Their dark glossy brown fur has put 

 a high price on their heads and nowhere are they at present found in 

 any great abundance. 



Mink: Lutreola vison energumenos (Bangs). — Minks are fairly 

 common along the streams and lake shores in the park, but nowhere 

 numerous, as their numbers are kept down by persistent trapping. 

 A few tracks were seen along the banks of Belly River, Two Medicine 

 Creek, and shores of St. Mary, Kintla, and McDonald Lakes. Eanger 

 Gibb reports them along most of the streams and Donald Stevenson 

 says they are especially common along the streams where fish abound. 

 J. E. Lewis, at Lake McDonald, had skins from that general region 



Fig. 16. — Mink photographed at old cabin above Kintla Lake. 



that showed good color and excellent fur, and says that they con- 

 stitute an important part of the fur catch of the region each year. 



Minks are rarely seen except as caught in traps, but occasionally 

 one gets a glimpse of a little dark brown animal with fuzzy tail dart- 

 ing along the creek banks or loping with arched back along the lake 

 shore or swimming rapidly in the stream or lake. They are generally 

 found in the vicinity of water, where much of their hunting is done. 

 Their food consists mainly of mice and other small rodents, birds, 

 birds' eggs, frogs, and fish. Of small game they occasionally kill 

 muskrats, ducks, and probably grouse. At what appeared to be a 

 breeding den at an old muskrat burroAV on Lower Waterton Lake duck 

 feathers were scattered thickly about the burrows, while at one side 

 was a large heap of characteristic mink sign, composed also largely 

 of feathers and bones of Avater birds. A family of mink on the breed- 

 ing grounds of Avater birds is ahvays a serious drain on the bird life, 

 and it is fortunate that they are not abundant and that their attrac- 



