MAMMALS. 



679 



animal, except when excited by game. It is a very near relative of the 

 polecat (the name comes from Polish cat), which has the doubtful honor 

 of being the worst-smelling animal in all Europe. It is also known as 

 fitch and foul-mart, and furnishes the well-known glossy black fitch fur of 

 commerce. It is as insatiate as the rest. 



Our mink stands next, — the skunk of our animals in the strength of 

 the smell, but it is not so insufferably perfumed as is that little black and 

 white 'enfant du diable'; and besides, its aquatic habits render its effluvium 

 less apparent. Minks occur in the neighborhood of water all over North 

 America. They make their burrows in the banks of the streams and ponds, 

 in which they seek their food of fish, molluscs, cray-fish, reptiles, and frogs ; 





' •--' -^J^s^v^ 







Fig. 522. — Asiatic sable {Mu stela zibellina). 



but they are perfectly willing to vary this diet with mice and moles, a pos- 

 sible musk-rat, and an occasional visit to the neighboring poultry-yard. 



The American sable, or pine-martin, is one of our most valuable fur- 

 bearing animals. It occurs from the northern part of the United States 

 north to the limit of trees. It differs from the forms already enumerated, 

 in that it shuns civilization, and but rarely, if ever, does it visit the 

 chicken-coop. A remarkable feature is its periodicity. Once in every few 

 years they come out in great multitudes, as if their retreats were over- 

 stocked, and in the early years of this century the annual catch of tins 

 animal amounted to one hundred thousand. It is chiefly trapped in the 

 winter months, when the skin is in the best condition, the trap being made 

 of brush and stakes, with a log for a dead-fall. 



