1 68 MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



every practicable way. As its fur is of considerable value there is little fear 

 however that they will ever be so numerous as to become a plague. The 

 burrows of the mink are made in banks near or along watercourses, though 

 sometimes they take possession of a hollow log and there have their young. 

 The latter number 5 or 6, though as many as 10 have been noted in 

 minkeries. The period of gestation is 6 weeks. The difference in size of 

 the males and females when grown is not so great as in the weasels, the 

 female mink weighing about i^ pounds, the male ^ pound more. The 

 minkeries alluded to are places where these animals are raised for the same 

 purposes as the European ferret. They are easily tamed, make excellent 

 ratters, hunt vigorously and soon exterminate these pests. Other minkeries 

 breed the minks for their fur to profit. The average values of raw mink furs 

 (northern Pa.) run from 50 cents to 5i-50- 



Description of species. — The mink is readily distinguished from any of our 

 eastern weasels by its larger size, stouter body, uniform brown color and 

 bushy tail. From the marten it may be also known by its unicolor body and 

 the shortness of its tail and ears. In size the marten is somewhat larger, and 

 much longer furred. Nearly all minks have a white spot or spots on the 

 breast, a peculiarity shared by nearly all the Musielidce. The northern 

 species, vison typicus, is a much darker seal brown (sometimes nearly black) 

 than the southeastern mink, luireocephalns. The latter on the CaroUna coasts 

 becomes a sort of yellowish brown and with shorter, less dense and less 

 marketable fur. The southern race is larger than the mountain mink. 



Measurements {vison). — Total length, 520 mm. (2054 in.) ; tail vertebrae^ 

 185 (t^) ; hind foot, 55 {2^^) ; {/utreocephalus)— 6 7,c, (27) ; 210 {2>%) ; 



70 (23/^). 



Bonaparte's Weasel, Lesser or Short-tailed Weasel. Putorius 

 cicognani (Bonaparte). 



1838. Mustela cicognanii Bonaparte, Iconograph. Fauna Italia, vol. i, 

 fascic. 22, p. 4. 



1839. Ptitorius cicognanii Richardson, Zoology of Beechey's Voyage of the 

 Blossom, p. 10. 



Type locality. — Northeastern North America. 



Faunal distribution. — Hudsoniau, Canadian aud upper transition zones ;, 

 Atlantic Ocean to Lake Winnipeg in the north and Rocky Mountains in the 

 south. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — A very rare animal ; only found in the 

 most boreal situations in Pa. None have come to notice from N. J. Bangs*' 

 record of it from Long Island I am inclined to question. Miller includes 

 the whole transition zone in their habitat and surmises that the upper austral 



