MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 1 67 



Measurements. — Total length, 969 mm. (38 in.) ; tail vertebrae, 200 (8) ; 

 hind foot, 170 (6J^). 



Genus Putorius Cuvier, Regne Animal, 181 7, vol. i, p. 147. 

 Northeastern Mink. Putorius vison (Schreber). 



1778. Mustela vison Schreber, Saugthiere, vol. 3, p. 463. 



1830. Putorius vison Gapper, Zoological Journal, vol. 5, p. 202. 



Type locality. — Eastern Canada. 



Faunal distribution — Lower Arctic, Hudsonian and Canadian zones. 

 Great Slave Lake, Hudson Bay, Atlantic Ocean, northern Pennsylvania, 

 lower Great Lakes and the Rocky Mts. enclose the habitat of this species ; 

 replaced in the southeast by lutreocephalus, next considered. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — The typical Canadian form is not found in 

 N. J. In Pa. it is numerous in the most boreal mountain areas of the north- 

 ern border. It is the form named by Audubon and Bachman Putorius 

 nigrescens, or " mountain mink." 



Habits, description of species, etc. — See next, under Southeastern Mink. 



Southeastern Mink. Putorius vison lutreocephalus (Harlan). 



1825. Mustela lutreocephala Harlan, Fauna Americana, p. 63. 



1896. Putorius vison lutreocephalus Bangs, Proceedings Boston Society 

 Natural History, vol. 27, p. 4. 



Type locality. — Maryland. 



Faunal distribution. — Transition and upper austral zones, Connecticut to 

 South Carolina, Atlantic Ocean to Rocky Mountains. 



Distribution in Pa. and N. J. — Abundant or represented sparingly along 

 all watercourses in our limits, except where replaced by the northern mink, 

 P. vison. 



Habits, etc. — The mink is essentially an amphibious animal, second only in 

 aquatic feats to the otters in the family Mustelidm. It is much more at home 

 on land than the otter, however, and on this account makes numerous and 

 often persistent raids on poultry some distance from water, in this respect 

 showing its affinity to the weasels. Fish form a large part of its diet, and its 

 destruction of these (especially of the brook trout and other game fish) 

 owing to its abundance as compared with the otter, makes it a serious pest to 

 anglers. It also destroys birds and eggs, cray-fish, frogs and batrachians to a 

 small extent. It is an accomplished and persistent mouser after the meadow 

 voles which abound in its chosen haunts, and is also the most deadly wild 

 enemy of the muskrat. Dr. Warren summarizes his reports concerning the 

 mink as showing that it is a noxious species which should be suppressed in 



