SWIMMERS 



rats kept getting into his mink traps when they 

 still needed several months to become " prime " 

 in, now growls on finding the mink which had 

 so exasperatingly avoided his traps all winter, 

 when his pelt would have sold for several dollars 

 perhaps, caught ignominously in a muskrat trap 

 in April, his faded coat already showing little 

 tufts of pale under-fur detaching themselves from 

 the skin. For in the spring minks haunt the 

 muskrat grounds more than at any other time, 

 penetrating their burrows and climbing over their 

 cabins, or wading along their paths in the shal- 

 low water, and robbing the muskrat traps of their 

 victims. 



They never appear to have any established 

 homes, but sleep wherever it is most convenient, 

 often in the nest of a muskrat, after having killed 

 or driven off the owner. A favourite place is 

 beneath a stump, or in the hollow root of a tree, 

 or among rocks, their taste in such matters being 

 very similar to that of the otter. 



