A MYSTERY SOLVED. 213 



mink subsists. We have sometimes seen it feed- 

 ing on frogs and cray-fish. In the Northern 

 States we have often observed it with a Wilson's 

 meadow-mouse in its mouth, and in Carolina the 

 very common cotton-rat furnishes no small pro- 

 portion of its food. We have frequently re- 

 marked it coursing along the edges of the 

 marshes, and found that it was in search of this 

 rat, which frequents such localities, and we dis- 

 covered that it was not an unsuccessful mouser. 

 We once saw a mink issuing from a hole in the 

 earth, dragging by the neck a large Florida rat. 



In the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina, 

 a hen-house was one season robbed several nights 

 in succession, the owner counting a chicken less 

 every morning. No idea could be formed, how- 

 ever, of the manner in which it was carried off. 

 The building was erected on posts, and was se- 

 curely locked, in addition to which precaution 

 a very vigilant watch-dog was now put on guard, 

 being chained underneath the chicken-house. 

 Still, the number of fowls in it diminished 

 nightly, and one was as before missed every 

 morning. 



We were at last requested to endeavour to 

 ascertain the cause of the vexatious and singular 

 abstraction of our friend's chickens, and on a 

 careful examination we discovered a small hole 

 in a corner of the building, leading to a cavity 



