I.ITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



within a mile of this place during the last of 

 October and the first part of November, and, by 

 the time the snow came, there was not a mink 

 track to be found for miles about, though until 

 the streams had frozen to the depth of a foot or 

 more I found otter tracks after every snow-fall. 

 The only mink tracks that I have seen this winter 

 have been in an extensive swamp, two or three miles 

 to the north, and these only on two occasions. 



In December I noticed the tracks of a large 

 weasel near a brook, and, following them, found 

 where it had dug down into the snow beneath a 

 little hemlock and uncovered the dead body of a 

 female mink. There was no sign, as far as I 

 could see, that the mink had been shot, or killed 

 by any of the larger beasts or birds of prey ; it was 

 simply curled up. as if asleep, and I could not 

 help wondering if it could possibly have been 

 hibernating, as some hunters claim that they do, 

 and drowned by the freshet that had flooded the 

 hollow a few weeks before. 



