126 RIVERBY 



again, and hustled it about more than before. As 

 she rose with it toward the nest, it in some way im- 

 peded her flight, and she was compelled to return to 

 the ground with it. But she kept her temper re- 

 markably well. She turned the paper over and took 

 it up in her beak several times before she was satis- 

 fied with her hold, and then carried it back to the 

 branch, where, however, it would not stay. I saw 

 her make six trials of it, when I was called away. I 

 think she finally abandoned the restless fragment, 

 probably a scrap that held some " breezy " piece of 

 writing, for later in the season I examined the nest 

 and found no paper in it. 



A FRIGHTENED MINK 



In walking through the woods one day in early 

 winter, we read upon the newly fallen snow the rec- 

 ord of a mink's fright the night before. The mink 

 had been traveling through the woods post-haste, 

 not along the watercourses where one sees them by 

 day, but over ridges and across valleys. We fol- 

 lowed his track some distance to see what adventures 

 he had met with. We tracked him through a bushy 

 swamp, saw where he had left it to explore a pile of 

 rocks, then where he had taken to the swamp again, 

 then to the more open woods. Presently the track 

 turned sharply about, and doubled upon itself in 

 long hurried strides. What had caused the mink to 

 change its mind so suddenly ? We explored a few 

 paces ahead, and came upon a fox track. The mink 



