208 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



octavo edition of the "Birds of America," the 

 publication of whicli was not then completed. 

 The work on the quadrupeds has since been re- 

 published by V. G. Audubon, in an octavo form, 

 to correspond in size with the small edition of 

 the Birds, and we have been permitted to make 

 some extracts from it, which we gladly add to 

 the foregoing pages. 



THE MINK. 



Next to the ermine, the mink is the most 

 active and destructive little depredator that 

 prowls around the farm-yard, or the farmer's 

 duck-pond ; where the presence of one or two of 

 these animals will soon be made known by the 

 sudden disappearance of sundry young ducks 

 and chickens. The vigilant farmer may per- 

 haps see a fine fowl moving in a singular and 

 most involuntary manner, in the clutches of a 

 mink, towards a fissure in a rock or a hole in 

 some pile of stones, in the gray of the morning, 

 and should he rush to the spot to ascertain the 

 fate of the unfortunate bird, he will see it sudden- 

 ly twitched into a hole too deep for him to fathom, 

 and wish he had carried with him his double- 

 barreled gun, to have ended at once the life of 

 the voracious destroyer of his carefully tended 

 poultry. Our friend, the farmer, is not, how- 



