THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
“In April the female fixes herself a cozy nest in some hole among the 
rocks, or inside a hollow log or stump, generally hidden away among flags 
and bulrushes beside a stream. 
“Tn winter, when the still waters are frozen, they haunt open rapids and 
warm springs in the woods, or finding entrance beneath the ice of closed 
brooks, make extended excursions along the dim buried channel, alternately 
running beneath the ice and along the brook’s border where the falling away 
of the water has left a narrow strip of unfrozen turf beneath ice and snow. 
Here they catch small fish and meadow mice, or, tracing the brook’s 
course down to the wider reaches of the river, find larger fish and muskrats 
to try their strength upon. Water, however, is not essential to the minks’ 
happiness at any season, for they can hunt rabbits all winter long in the 
snow as successfully as the sable or fisher. 
“The mink is endowed with boundless resources in the face of danger 
as well as in the matter of getting a living. Wander where he will day or 
night, it is of small consequence whether the enemy that attacks him is fox, 
dog, wild cat, otter, or owl, he is always within a couple of jumps of some 
place of refuge. If the water is near, he dives without a splash and darts 
away like a fish, almost as much at home as the fish themselves in the swirl- 
ing depths of the eddies and dim passages beneath sunken logs and drift- 
wood, only coming to the surface here and there for a breath until the 
enemy is left hopelessly behind. When the water is not within reach, he 
can go up the nearest tree like a squirrel, or dart into any hole or crevice 
that would hide a rat; and lacking this, can outrun and outdodge any 
ordinary pursuer.”” 
The agile, slender, short-toed, cat-clawed fur bearers we 
have been considering have a group of relatives which are 
stout-bodied, slow, long-toed, and long-clawed, and which 
search for their livelihood on the ground or under it, — the 
ratels, badgers, skunks, and the like. 
This subfamily (Meline) is distinguished for nauseous 
smell and conspicuous coloration. These two features seem 
Fetid Fur '0 go together, and several of these animals have 
Bearers. long figured as stock examples of what Wallace '® 
termed warning coloration. ‘On the back of every skunk 
are bold white bands and patches alternating with coal-black, 
making it an object visible and attractive to brute curiosity 
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