132 



The Living Animals of the World 



The Mink. 



Ladies are very familiar with tlie fur of the ]\ItNK, which is one of the liest of the less 

 expensive varieties ; it is not ghissy as marten or sable, and of a lighter and moi-e uniform 

 brown. The mink is a water-haunting polecat, found in Siberia, North America, and Japan. 

 Its main home is in North America, where the immense system of lakes and rivers gives 

 scope for its arpiatic habits. The under-fur is particularly warm and thick, to keej) out the 

 cold of the water, in which the animal spends more time than on land. It is not stated to 

 catch fish, as does the otter, in the w'ater ; but it lives on frogs, crayfish, mussels, and dead 

 or stranded fish. Minks have been kept in confinement and regularly bred in " minkeries," 

 as is the blue fox, and in Manchuria the chow dog, for the sake of its fur. 



The Polecat. 



This is now probably the rare.st of the British weasels. It is ahnost identically the same 

 as the polecat-ferret, a cross-breed between it and the domesticated variety. It survives in a 

 few of the great woodlands of the jMidlands and of Oxfordshire, in Scotland, and Wales. It is 

 found in Cumberland, near Bowness, and on Exmoor and Dartmoor where rabbits abound. It 

 is an expert swimmer. Its habits are the same as those of the stoat, but it is slower in its 

 movements. It catches fish, and can pick up food from the bottom of the water. "Wild ones 

 can be trained to work like ferrets. '■ They do not delay in the hole, but follow the rat out 

 and catch it in a couple of bounds " (Trevor-Battye). The Febret is a domesticated breed 

 of polecat. It is identical in shai^e and habits, but unable to stand the cold of our climate 

 in the open. 



Bi/r 



uoil r:/y,,vy h:rjl, l;_iiil,u-lo,i, Enq. 



I'TNE-MARTEN. 

 rine-m:irtena Lave nio.st beautiful fur, .and for Ihat reason are nmcli hunted in Americ.T. 



