The Mink. 453 



sects left on the mud and oyster-banks, on the subsiding of the 

 waters. We have seen a Mink winding steal tli-ily through the 

 tall marsh-grass, pausing occasionally to take an observation, and 

 sometimes lying for the space of a minute flat upon the mud : at 

 length it draws its hind-feet far forwards under its body in the 

 manner of a cat, its back is arched, its tail curled, and it makes a 

 sudden spring. The screams of a captured marsh-hen succeed, 

 and its upraised fluttering^ wing gives sufficient evidence that it is 

 about to be transferred fi om its pleasant haunts in the marshes to 

 the capacious maw of the hungry Mink. 



"It is at low tide that this animal usually captures the marsh- 

 hen. We have often at high spring tide observed a dozen of those 

 birds standing on a small field of floating sticks and matted 

 grasses, gazing stupidly at a mink seated not five feet from them. 

 No attempt was made by the latter to capture the birds that were 

 now within his reach. At first we supposed that he might have 

 already been satiated with food and was disposed to leave the 

 tempting marsh hens till his appetite called for more ; but we 

 were after more mature reflection inclined to think that the high 

 spring tides which occur, exposing the whole marsli to view and 

 leaving no place of concealment, frighten the Mink as well as the 

 marsh-hen ; and as misery sometimes makes us familiar with, 

 strange associates, so the Mink and the marsh-hen like neighbour 

 and brother hold on to their little floating islands till the waters 

 subside, when each again follows the instincts of nature. An in- 

 stance of a similar eft'ect of fear on other animals was related to 

 us by an old resident of Carolina : some forty years ago, during 

 a tremendous flood in the Santee river, he saw two or three deer 

 on a small mound not twenty feet in diametei*, surrounded by a 

 wide sea of waters, with a cougar seated in the midst of them ; 

 both parties, having seemingly entered into a truce at a time 

 when their lives seemed equally in jeopardy, were apparently dis- 

 posed peaceably to await the falling of the waters that sur- 

 rounded them. 



" The Minks which resort to the Southern marshes, being there 

 furnished with an abundant supply of food are always fat, and 

 appear to us considerably larger than the same species in those 

 localities where food is less abundant. 



"This species prefers taking up its residence on the borders of 

 ponds and along the banks of small streams, rather than along 

 large and broad rivers. It "delights in frequenting the foot of 



