TWO FAMOUS SWIMMERS. 149 



however, food is plenty he is a bit wasteful. One 

 winter a mink tunneled a passage under the snow to 

 the troughs of the State Fish Hatchery, at Livermore 

 Falls, JS^. H., where he captured and destroyed num- 

 berless trout, the remains of which were discovered, 

 when the snow disappeared in the spring, in and about 

 his nest. He is decidedly nocturnal in his habits, and 

 consequently is not as often caught in his depreda- 

 tions on the poultry inclosure as the fox or the weasel ; 

 but he generally frequents the margins of rivers and 

 lakes both night and day. The only one I ever saw 

 in the wild state was busily occupied in the middle of 

 a summer morning devouring either a mouse or a frog 

 on the sandy border of a mountain lake. Dr. Mer- 

 riam says he once saw three on the banks of the out- 

 let of Seventh Lake (Adirondacks), and many times 

 has met them in summer and winter about the water 

 courses of northern ISTew York. The little animal 

 often prowls about the lakes of the Adirondack wil- 

 derness, he further says, and devours the remains of 

 fish left on the shore near the camps. As a swimmer 

 the mink is not excelled by any other similar small 

 animal. He can remain a long time under water, and 

 pursues fish by following them under logs and shelter- 

 ing rocks. He even captures the speckled beauty of 

 the mountain stream, for Audubon relates that he saw 

 a mink catch a troTit upward of a foot long. Exceed- 



