SWIMMERS 



If the angler who laboriously chops decaying 

 logs to pieces in order to obtain a few borers 

 for bait for fishing through the ice could learn 

 of the minks how to get such worms as these, 

 he would probably consider himself among the 

 favoured of mortals. But the mink does not 

 always confine himself to such insignificant game, 

 by any manner of means ; he not infrequently 

 kills birds and animals as large or larger than 

 himself, neither ducks, partridges, chickens, 

 rabbits, or muskrats being ever wholly safe 

 where minks are abundant. 



For the minks are less restricted in their hunt- 

 ing-grounds than the others, especially in winter, 

 when they adopt many of the ways of the ermine 

 and sable, wandering about the woods at random 

 in pursuit of game of any kind, from wild mice 

 to rabbits, travelling with the easy, undulating 

 movement of their family until game is sighted, 

 when they pursue it with rapid bounds and 

 arched back, like a frightened kitten. 



109 



