26 



NATURE'S CALENDAR 



February 14 



apt to wind its body around that of the 

 captor, and generally succeeds in throw- 

 ing him end over end more than once 

 before being finally subdued and hauled 

 away. . . . 



"A mink will nearly always follow any 

 open brook it comes to, even if obliged 

 to change its course in order to do so, 

 alternately swimming and wading or 

 walking along the bank. On reaching 

 the limit of the unfrozen water, he will 

 often keep on beneath the ice, especially 

 if the water has fallen away from it so as 

 to leave an air-space, and perhaps a nar- 

 row strip of turf uncovered along the 

 edge of the water. For it is in just such 

 places that meadow-mice spend the win- 

 ter, their burrows opening out from the 

 banks in the same manner as muskrat 

 holes. And even the smallest brooks 

 harbor young pickerel and eels, as well as 

 frogs and lizards. . . . But the mink does 

 not always confine himself to such insig- 

 nificant game, by any manner of means ; 

 he not infrequently kills birds and ani- 

 mals as large or larger than himself, 

 neither ducks, partridges, chickens, rab- 

 bits, or muskrats being ever wholly safe 

 where minks are abundant." 



The mink remains brown all winter, 

 but with the coming of cold weather his 

 cousin, the weasel, or ermine, turns more 

 or less white according to the degree of 

 cold — those in the south making no 

 change of pelage at all. This is a com- 



February 15 



