2S0 Union Bay 



than natural controls. As the price of the fur goes up, trap- 

 ping increases and the supply diminishes. When prices go 

 down, trapping is less extensively followed and the number 

 increases. 



The mink, second of the quintet, then, is not a vegetarian 

 like the muskrat but obtains the greater part of its living as 

 a predator— as a hunter of birds, fish, and small mammals, 

 and as a consumer of dead fish which happen to come its 

 way. The marsh economic status of the mink is largely based 

 upon its choice of food: the proportion of the beneficial to 

 the injurious creatures which it consumes. A diet of water- 

 fowl would be regarded as harmful, but if the brown rat . is 

 its principal food, the mink might be considered a beneficial 

 factor in the marsh. 



When I left the area where I had seen the mink I was in 

 somewhat of a quandary. I had passed the best time of the 

 day looking for rails. If they came out of the marsh at all, it 

 was when the shadows were heavy enough to limit visibility, 

 and there was plenty of protective darkness in the nearby 

 tangle of cattails. I thought it useless to look for more mam- 

 mals. I scarcely ever saw more than one a day, and this morn- 

 ing I had already seen two. It was too much to expect to do 

 better. 



I started toward the canoehouse but did not get far. I 

 stopped because I could think of no better place to spend the 

 rest of the day. It was the time of year when the gulls had 

 begun to gather on the log boom, when fat mallard hens 

 drowsed in the sun, and the tule wrens recalled bits of their 

 spring songs. The temperature exactly suited me. The water 

 of the bay had lost its summer murkiness. The cottonwoods 

 were feeling the approach of fall so that now and then a leaf 

 dropped into the water. 



I let the canoe drift across the bay and paddled into the 

 cove. There I decided that this was my lucky day. A noise 



