132 



The Living Animals of the World 



THE MINK. 



Ladies are very familiar with the fur of the MINK, which is one of the best of the less 

 expensive varieties ; it is not glossy as marten or sable, and of a lighter and more uniform 

 brown. The mink is a water-haunting polecat, found in Siberia, North America, and Japan. 

 Its main home is in North America, where the immense system of lakes and rivers gives 

 scope for its aquatic habits. The under-fur is particularly warm and thick, to keep out the 

 cold of the water, in which the animal spends more time than on land. It is not stated to 

 catch fish, as does the otter, in the water ; but it lives on frogs, crayfish, mussels, and dead 

 or stranded fish. Minks have been kept in confinement and regularly bred in " minkeries," 

 as is the blue fox, and in Manchuria the chow dog, for the sake of its fur. 



THE POLECAT. 



This is now probably the rarest of the British weasels. It is almost identically the same 

 as the polecat-ferret, a cross-breed between it and the domesticated variety. It survives in a 

 few of the great woodlands of the Midlands and of Oxfordshire, in Scotland, and Wales. It is 

 found in Cumberland, near Bowness, and on Exmoor and Dartmoor where rabbits abound. It 

 is an expert swimmer. Its habits are the same as those of the stoat, but it is slower in its 

 movements. It catches fish, and can pick up food from the bottom of the water. Wild ones 

 can be trained to work like ferrets. " They do not delay in the hole, but follow the rat out 

 and catch it in a couple of bounds" (Trevor-Bat tye). The FERRET is a domesticated breed 

 of polecat. It is identical in shape and habits, but unable to stand the cold of our climate 

 in the open. 



By permission of Percy Leigh Peinbcrton, /. 



PINE-MARTEN. 



Pine-martens have most beautiful fur, and for that reason are much hunted in America. 



