LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



stacks in order to be above the reach of the tide, 

 digging cosey tunnels in the soft hay, like rat- 

 holes in a haymow in the barn. At low tide 

 they ramble along the bottoms of the intersecting 

 ditches that drain the marsh, where they find an 

 abundant supply of small fry and shell-fish and 

 eels, with an occasional muskrat, bound on the 

 same errand as themselves ; or else they slip 

 between the stems of the coarse marsh grass on 

 the borders of the shallow ponds, to waylay 

 the marsh birds feeding there, and pick up the 

 wounded ones left by the sportsmen. 



The ditches are a yard or more in depth, and 

 only six or eight inches wide, and are cut at first 

 with perpendicular sides which, after a few years, 

 come together at the top, leaving underground 

 passages where the minks can travel in safety, 

 except in the late fall and winter, when the pro- 

 fessional trapper is on the war-path. 



But the trapper has only to place his traps 

 on the bottoms of the ditches, and visit them 



iiS 



