Loomis — New Mink from the Shell Heaps of Maine. 227 



Art. XXIII. — A New Mink from, the Shell Heaps of Maine ; 

 by F. B. Loomis. 



During the summer of 1909 the Amherst Biological Expe- 

 dition collecting in the shell heaps along the Maine coast, 

 opened the heap on the east side of Flagg Island in Oasco Bay, 

 near South Harpswell. This heap is distinct from any of the 

 others in several features, but especially in having large num- 

 bers of mink bones in it, the mink being, however, larger than 

 any species now living in New England and markedly different 

 from any that are known. It is as large as the largest species 

 from Alaska.* In the course of the week spent in the Elagg 

 Island heap no less than 45 individuals were, found in which 

 there were 10 upper and 34 lower jaws of males, and 2 upper 

 and 11 lower jaws of females. Beside these 3 lower jaws 

 of the same species were found in the heap on Sawyers Island 

 near Boothbay, 2 in the Seward Island heap in Frenchman's 

 bay, and one in the Winter Harbor heap. The other localities 

 worked did not offer any of this mink ; so that it would appear 

 that Flagg Island was more or less overrun with these minks 

 during the shell heap period, while they occurred also in small 

 numbers along the coast to the east and north. 



The exact time when they lived is difficult to estimate, but 

 the heaps contain nothing ot European origin, so they were 

 accumulated before 1627 and are probably as much older as it 

 took to build them up, perhaps 200 to 400 years more. The 

 mink is not confined to any one level on Flagg Island but 

 occurred all through the heap; so that it is to be thought of as 

 having lived on the Maine coast for some hundreds of years. 



None of the skeletons were found associated, nor were any 

 of the skulls perfect. In every case the mink had served as 

 food for the aboriginal campers, so that the carcass had been 

 pulled to pieces and the bones thrown away in various direc- 

 tions. Every skull has the brain case broken and lost, the 

 brain having apparently been used for food. The facial por- 

 tion of each skull is, however, pretty much intact, indicating 

 that the meat was simply picked off it. Many of the lower 

 jaws are marked with tool scratches (see fig. 2) apparently 

 made while removing the meat from the bones. 



This form is much larger than any of the living New 

 England species, being all of 25 per cent larger than Lutreola 



the large brown mink, and 



(vison) lutreocephalus* Harlan 



* N. American Fauna, Dept. Agriculture, No. 19, 1900, p. 42. 

 f Bangs, North American Minks, Boston Soc. Nat. Hist., Proceedings, 

 vol. xxvii, 1897, p. 1-6. 



