THE MAMMALS OF NEW JERSEY. 103 



The skin of the skunk is a valuable article in the fur trade, 

 and large numbers of them are secured by trappers every year, 

 and later sold by the furriers under more attractive trade names. 



Mephitis mephitica Abbott, Cook's Geol. of N. J., 1868, p. 

 754. — Abbott, A. Naturalist's Rambles, 1885, p. 448. — Rhoads, 

 Proc. Acad, of Nat. Sci. Phila., 1897, p. 31. 



Mephitis americana Beesley, Geol. Cape May Co'., 1857, p. 



137- 



Mephitis mephitis putida Rhoads, Mam. Pa. and N. J., 1903, 

 p. 163. 



Genus PuTORius Cuvier. 



Minks and Weasels. 



Putorius vison lutreocephalus (Harlan). 



Southern Mink. 



Plate 52. 



Length, 28 inches'. Larger than the weasel, with thicker tail; 

 dark chestnut brown with a white spot on the chin and often on 

 the chest or belly. 



The home of the mink is in low ground along a water course, 

 and in a nearby bank it usually digs its burrow and rears its 

 young. It is far more acquatic than the weasel and dives and 

 swims with ease. The mink lives to some extent upon fish, but 

 also eats the meadow mice, and other semi-acquatic animals 

 which frequent the meadows. Birds are also killed by this blood- 

 thirsty little animal and their nests despoiled, and a convenient 

 chicken house is by no means ignored, although the mink is not so 

 destructive to poultry as the weasel. 



The mink has always been persistently hunted, and its fur is 

 highly valued. The mink like the skunk is provided with a 

 scent gland, and, although it does not use it as a means of de- 

 fence, its odor is tO' me far more disagreeable at close range than 

 the odor of the skunk. 



Only one variety of mink is known from New Jersey, but to 

 the north and in the higher mountains of Pennsylvania occurs 



! 



