ANALYTIC STUDY OF FAUNAL CHANGES. ISI 
and slides going down to the water and consequently are easy 
to trap. 
The mink is a relative of the otter but is less aquatic 
and its hide has less value. On the other hand, it often raids 
poultry yards and so incurs greater danger. It is swift of 
foot, cunning and resourceful, although not especially shrewd 
in avoiding traps. Its cunning and its ability to hide enable 
it to still exist, though in greatly diminished numbers. 
weasels are but smaller editions of the mink and are able to 
hold their own better because of the lesser value of their fur 
and their inconspicuous size. 
THE RODENTS. 
Aside from the beaver, the most interesting of these is 
the porcupine. It is almost unique in having no economic 
ited may account, in part, for its disappearance. But its 
extermination was due principally to the spiny armor that 
. . 
in its extermination was probably the extraordinary appear- 
ance which the long spines gave to the animal. ese made 
the ravages of the innumerable hordes of squirrels. Later, 
deforestation aided in their reduction, and hunting for sport 
gray squirrel was the more numerous species when the State 
was first settled. At the present time fox squirrels are fairly 
on in most of the groves of trees remaining about the 
am unable to suggest any reason for the change in relative 
numbers of the two species. The fox squirrel seems to be bet- 
ter adapted to the manrelation, perhaps because of certain 
