218 ‘ AUDUBCN THE NATURALIST, 
it still alive uader a dcad-fall, with a pole lying 
across its body pressed Cuwn by a weight of one 
hundred and fifty pounds, beneath which it had 
been struggiing for nearly twenty-four hours. 
This species, as well as the skunk and the 
ermine, emits an offensive odour, when pro- 
voked by meu cr dogs, and this habit is exer- 
cised likewise in a moderate degree whenever it 
is engaged in any severe struggle with an ani- 
mal or bird or, which it has seized. We were 
once attracted by the peculiar and well known 
plaintive cry vf a hare, in‘a marsh on the side 
of one of our Scuthern rice-fields, and our olfac- 
- tories were at the same time regaled with the 
strong fetid odour of the mink; we found it in 
possession of a large marsh-hare, with which, 
from the appearance of the trampled grass and 
mud, it had been engaged in a fierce struggle 
for some time. 
The mink, when taken young, becomes very 
gentle, and forms a strong attachment to those 
who fondle it in a state of domestication. Rich- 
ardson saw one in the “ possession of a Canadian 
woman, that passed the day in her pocket, look- 
ing out occasioualy when its attention was 
roused by an unusual noise.” We had in our 
possession a pet of this kind for eigliteen months; 
it regularly made a v'sit to an adjoining fish- 
pond both morniug and evening, and returned 
