PUTORIUS VISON. 65 



The Mink is an excellent example of an amphibious mammal, for 

 it not only swims and dives with facility, but can remain long under 

 water, and pursues and captures fish by following them under logs or 

 other places from which there is not a free escape. It has thus been 

 known to secure as swift and agile a fish as the brook-trout, and Au- 

 dubon says that he has seen a Mink catch a trout upwards of a foot 

 in length ! It is remarkably strong for so small an animal, and a sin- 

 gle one has been known to drag a mallard duck more than a mile, in 

 order to get it to its hole, where its mate joined in the feast. 



They are partially nocturnal, and hunt both at night and in broad 

 daylight, like most of their tribe. I once saw three together on the 

 banks of the outlet of Seventh Lake, and have many times met them 

 singly about our water-courses, both in summer and in winter. They 

 prowl about the lakes after nightfall and devour any fish that have 

 been left on shore near the camps. 



As an enemy to the farmer, in point of destructiveness in the poul- 

 try-yard, the Mink ranks next to the Ermine; and I sometimes in- 

 cline to the opinion that, in the long run, more fowls and ducks are 

 slain by him than by the last-named animal. He does not, it is true, 

 make those occasional devastating raids, slaughtering everything that 

 falls in his way, that constitute a chapter in the life-history of the Er- 

 mine, but takes one victim at a time, commonly devouring it before 

 killing another. Still, the wholesale butchery sometimes carried on 

 by the Ermine occurs at long and irregular intervals, whilst the depre- 

 dations of the Mink are apt to be more frequent and continuous. 

 Taking up his abode in, or in proximity to, the poultry-yard, or duck- 

 pond, he is pretty sure to remain for weeks, helping himself, daily, to 

 as many birds as his voracious appetite enables him to dispose of. 

 His small size and partially nocturnal habits tend to conceal his move- 

 ments, and the daily loss of a fowl is commonly laid at the door of 

 the skunk, fox, or owl, long before the true marauder is suspected. 



I find that many hunters and trappers believe that the Mink does 

 not make long journeys, but remains in the vicinity of its nest, to 



