218 AUDUBON THE NATURALIST. 



it still alive under a dead-fall, with a pole lying 

 across its body pressed down by a weight of one 

 hundred and fifty pojinds, beneath which it had 

 been struggling for nearly twenty-four hours. 



This species, as well as the skunk and the 

 ermine, emits an offensive odour, when pro- 

 voked by men or dogs, and this habit is exer- 

 cised likewise in a moderate degree whenever it 

 is engaged in any severe struggle with an ani- 

 mal or bird on which it has seized. We were 

 once attracted by the peculiar and well known 

 plaintive cry of a hare, in a marsh on the side 

 of one of our Southern rice-fields, and our olfac- 

 tories were at the same time regaled with the 

 strong fetid odour of the mink ; we found it in 

 possession of a large marsh-hare, with which, 

 from the appearance of the trampled grass and 

 mud, it had been engaged in a fierce struggle 

 for some time. 



The mink, when taken young, becomes very 

 gentle, and forms a strong attachment to those 

 who fondle it in a state of domestication. Kich- 

 ardson saw one in the " possession of a Canadian 

 woman, that passed the day in her pocket, look- 

 ing out occasionally when its attention was 

 roused by an unusual noise." We had in our 

 possession a pet of this kind for eighteen months ; 

 it regularly made a visit to an adjoining fish- 

 pond both morning and evening, and returned 



