148 MAMMALS OF UTAH 



ber 1, 1907 ; it turned the scale to 2 pounds 6 ounces. The 

 females are considerably smaller than the males, weighing, 

 according to Resseque, about 1 pound 10 ounces. In gen- 

 eral the mink is nearly uniform umber-brown, darker and 

 glossier on the back, and deepening on the tail nearly to 

 black; the chin is more or less white, and there may be 

 some white spots anywhere on throat, breast or belly, but 

 these are very irregular; some specimens are totally with- 

 out white. In the American species the white does not 

 reach the upper lip. In the Siberian species the upper lip 

 is normally white. This animal does not turn white in 

 winter. The impression it gives as it dodges in the woods 

 along the water is of a long, thin rat, with brown fur and ' 

 hairy tail. (Seton.) 



Distribution — The mink ranges over most of Canada 

 and all of the United States except the southwestern por- 

 tion. In Utah it is confined to the mountainous regions of 

 the eastern half of the state. Typical vison have been found 

 in the northern Wasatch mountains but most of the minks 

 of this state may be referred to Lutreocephalus, larger 

 than the type with shorter and paler fur. Minks are very 

 rare in Utah. E. C. Shepard of Logan reports a few in 

 Cache national forest, and S. B. Locke says that they occur 

 along the streams of southeastern Utah. 



Gerald Thorne informs me that he has Tsoth shot and 

 trapped mink in the Uinta basin and that a few stragglers 

 may still be found in the north and south sides of the 

 Uinta mountains. He has seen two along the Logan river, 

 where Ted Seeholzer caught six in 1916. Mr. F. A. Wrath- 

 all reports that he frequently sees mink in Big and Little 

 Cottonwood canyons. He has received many from local 

 trappers from time to time. 



Habits — The food of the mink includes everything in 

 the way of flesh, fish, or fowl it can conquer, and so furious 

 is the little animal that it overcomes many living things, 

 larger and stronger than itself. 



Picture an umber brown, elongated little animal, so 

 small that he could curl closely in your overcoat pocket, 

 but withal a creature so ferocious, so bloodthirsty and so 

 tenaceous that the famous bull terrier takes second place 

 to him as a fighter, and you have some impression of the 

 most truculent of all weasels, the mink, minx, or vison, as 

 he is variously called. Yet if the paradoxical bit of ferocity 

 be taken from its mother before his eyes are open, petted 



