Mink 
Minks combine the habits of the land and water hunters 
more successfully, perhaps, than any other animal. In warm 
weather they are fond of exploring wet swamps and low lands, 
where they find an abundance of frogs and lizards, and dig ali 
sorts of grubs, beetles and earthworms from the black peaty 
soil and leaf-mould around old weather-beaten stumps and rotten 
logs. 
They are most inveterate nest robbers and mousers, chasing 
the little blunt-headed furry meadow mice along their runways 
in the thick grass being their favourite sport. 
In April the female fixes herself a cozy nest in some hole 
among the rocks, or inside a hollow log or stump generally 
hidden away among flags and bullrushes beside a stream. 
The voung minks stay with their mother until cold weather, 
learning to fish and hunt; the frogs, mice and young birds fur- 
nish plenty of sport for them while the warm weather lasts, and 
they seldom wander far, until the sons of the family are as big 
or bigger than their mother. But the frosty autumn weather 
makes them restless, and they soon get into the way of going 
off separately on longer hunting excursions, to be gone several 
days or a week, perhaps, at a time. no longer returning when 
tired to sleep together in the same nest where they were born, 
but camping each alone wherever the fortunes of chase happen 
to lead them, for a mink is always able to find good sleeping 
quarters anywhere at a moment’s notice. 
The mink is not properly either nocturnal or diurnal; when 
well fed and tired, after a hard chase, he turns in and sleeps 
until rested, and then yawns and stretches himself and starts ‘out 
again for another jolly hunt, perfectly indifferent to the time of the 
day. It may be black rainy midnight or a brilliant October morn- 
ing: when he wakes, off he goes, hungry and eager for fresh 
adventures, exploring unknown territory and chasing birds such as 
he has never seen before, as the Northern cold drives them down 
in flight before it. His first snowstorm is likely to find him 
dozens of miles from home. Now and again he runs across other 
members of his species and the two hunt and fish together for a 
few days, but they soon part company again in most instances; 
one, it may be, preferring to follow down along the tidewater 
creeks after eels, while the other anticipates better fun chasing 
partridges and squirrels in the upland woods. 
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