394 NORTHERN EUROPE 



It is found also in Galicia and in the Glatz district of Silesia, and extended much 

 farther west in the eighteenth century, when it occasionally appeared in Pomerania, 

 Mecklenburg, Brandenburg, and on the Leine near Gottingen, where it was called 

 the stone-dog. As shown by the hunting-registers of the Counts of Schulenburg- 

 Wolfsburg, where it is regularly mentioned, the mink inhabited the marshy plain 

 on the Aller, called the Dromling. In 1852 one was caught on the Stolbergin the 

 tlartz Mountains; and in the vicinity of the Holstein lakes a few were still 

 caught every year up to about 1850. Later still the mink has been met with not 

 only in Holstein but also in Mecklenburg, although it may be regarded as one of 

 the nearly exterminated animals of central Europe. The minks are nearly related 

 to the polecats, from which they are distinguished by the more pointed muzzle 

 and the partially webbed toes, as well as by the absence of long hairs between the 

 pads of the feet, The European mink has a total length of 15 inches and a tail- 

 length of about 5 inches, or double that of the head. In colour this mink is dark 

 brown, with the chin and upper lip mostly white, whereas the American mink 



ErROI'EAX MINK. 



generally has no white upper lip, and is also distinguished by the larger molar tooth 



in the upper jaw. Occasionally, however, the lip is white in the American 

 animal, which in many respects is not to be distinguished from its European cousin, 

 with which it agrees generally in habits. Mink thus form a European and American 

 type, which, strange to say, does not exist in Asia. They are to a large extent 

 aquatic, and not only swim and dive with ease but are able to remain under 

 water for a long time. Their usual food is fish, frogs, crabs, snails, and other 

 aquatic animals, as well as water-rats, mice, rats, and sometimes birds or their eggs. 

 They hunt by day and night, follow up their prey by scent, and seem to be very 

 unsociable, although sometimes found in small parties. Generally they dwell on 

 tlic shores of rivers and lakes, where the}' travel to and from their burrows along 

 well-trodden paths to the water, and not only make daily rounds for their prey, 

 but take longer excursions from which they do not return for eight or fourteen 

 days. In America mink construct a soft nest in their burrows, or in the hollow 

 trunk of a tree, which is lined with feathers and other soft substances. In spring 

 the female brings forth four to six young, which remain with their mother until 



