THE MINK. 



{Putorius vison.) 



THIS soft lur bearing animal has 

 been described by Audubon 

 and Prince DeWied. Its near- 

 est relatives are very closely 

 allied to the polecat and differ from it 

 only by a flatter head, larger canine 

 teeth, shorter legs, the presence of 

 webs between the toes, a longer tail, 

 and a lustrous tur, consisting of a 

 close, smooth, short hair, resembling 

 otter fur. Its color is a uniform brown. 

 The fur of the American mink is much 

 more esteemed than that of the Euro- 

 pean, as it is softer and of a more 

 woolly character. 



According to Audubon the mink 

 ranks next to the ermine in destructive 

 capacity, prowling around the farm- 

 yard or duck-pond, and its presence is 

 soon detected by the sudden disap- 

 pearance of young chickens and duck- 

 lings. Audubon had a personal experi- 

 ence with a mink which made its home 

 in the stone dam of a small pond near 

 the home of the naturalist. The pond 

 had been dam^med for the benefit of 

 the ducks in the yard, and in this way 

 afforded the mink hunting-grounds of 

 ample promise. Its hiding-place had 

 been selected with cunning, very 

 near the house and still nearer the 

 place where the chickens had to 

 pass on their way to drink. In front 

 of its hole were two large stones, 

 which served the mink as a watch 

 tower, from which it could overlook 

 the yard as well as the pond. It would 

 lie in wait for hours every day and 

 would carry away chickens and ducks 

 in broad daylight. Audubon found the 

 mink to be especially plentiful on the 

 banks of the Ohio river, and there ob- 

 served it to be of some use in catching 

 mice and rats. But it was also ad- 

 dicted to poaching and fishing. The 

 naturalist observed it to swim and 

 dive with the greatest agility and pur- 

 sue and attack the quickest of fishes, 

 such as the salmon and trout. It will 



eat frogs or lizards, but when food is 

 plentiful it is very fastidious, preying 

 upon rats, finches and ducks, hares, 

 oysters and other shell fish; in short,. 

 Brehm says it adapts itself to the local- 

 ity and knows how to profit by what- 

 ever food supplies it may be able to 

 find. When frightened it gives forth 

 a very fetid odor like the polecat. 



The female gives birth to five or 

 six young at about the end of April. 

 If taken young they get to be very 

 tame and become real pets. Richard- 

 son saw one in the possession of a 

 Canadian lady who used to carry it 

 about with her in her pocket. It is 

 easily caught in a trap of any kind, 

 but its tenacity of life renders it diffi- 

 cult to shoot. The European mink 

 much resembles the American, ex- 

 cept that it is =omewhat smaller and 

 its fur is coarser. 



Upon a large farm in Michigan vis- 

 ited by the writer this summer ran a 

 creek where the chickens, when the 

 trough was dry — and dry it usually was 

 — traveled to get a drink. In the bank 

 of the creek a mink made his home, 

 and not a week passed that one or more 

 hens did not appear in the barnyard 

 crippled or mangled in a manner pain- 

 ful to behold — painful, that is, to the 

 visitor, but not apparently to the farm- 

 er, who only said: "It's that darned 

 mink; some day, when I have time, I'll 

 set a trap and catch him," and so went 

 coolly on his way, leaving the poor 

 maimed creatures to drag out a painful 

 existence for days or weeks, hoping 

 that nature would heal the wounds 

 made by the mink. 



Aside from the lack of thrift thus 

 shown by the farmer — for the hens^ 

 when badly mangled, in time suc- 

 cumbed — the inhumane aspect of the 

 case never seemed to strike him. The 

 cultivation of his fields left no time 

 for cultivating the finer feelings of the 

 heart. 



74 



