256 ANIMAL COMPETITORS 



small an animal, and has been known to drag 

 a mallard duck more than a mile in order to 

 get to its hole, where it was joined by its mate. 

 Value of the mink. Such is the farmer's 

 view of the mink, but the picture is not with- 

 out a brighter side. His loss of chickens and 

 eggs is largely due to his own slovenly way of 

 keeping his property, or rather of trusting it 

 to keep itself. The depredations of the mink 

 are almost wholly made at night. A tight 

 poultry-house will keep him out, even a wire- 

 fence of small mesh around the yard will do 



so. If the chickens are allowed to roost in 



.* 



trees or in any old shed it is foolish to com- 

 plain when they are seized by rats, weasels, 

 minks, skunks or, 'coons. 



In its natural life the mink habitually feeds 

 upon small mammals, birds and their eggs, 

 fish, frogs, turtles' eggs, crayfish, earthworms 

 and the like. It is one of the busiest hunters 

 of injurious rodents, particularly muskrats 

 and common rats and mice. Hence it is a pub- 

 lic benefactor in localities where muskrats 

 damage dikes, canals, irrigating ditches, and 

 ponds ; and day by day it seeks out the runways 



