472 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 





* 





H^t 



f, 7. r. 



THE) COMMON BROWN RAT 



The large series shows the ordinary forag- 

 ing gait; the smaller one, to the right, shows 

 the travel at low speed. In all, the tail mark 

 is a strong feature (see pages 423 and 429). 



and similar cover. They are always restless 

 and tilled with curiosity regarding anything of 

 unusual appearance. When one encounters a 



man it shows no fear, but slyly moving from 

 one shelter to another, now advancing and 

 now retreating, examines the stranger care- 

 fully before going on its way. As they devote 

 practically their entire lives to tin- destruction 

 of held mice, they are valuable friends of the 

 farmer and should have his good will and pro- 

 tection^ Unfortunately for these weasels, no 

 discrimination is shown between them and their 

 larger relatives of more injurious habits. 



Among the natives of Alaska all weasels are 

 looked upon with great respect on account of 

 their prowess as hunters. I found this feeling 

 peculiarly strong among the Eskimos, whose 

 existence for ages has depended so largely on 

 the products of the chase. Among them the 

 capture of a weasel meant good luck to the 

 hunter, and to take the rarer least weasel was 

 considered a happy omen. The head and entire 

 skin of the least weasel was highly prized for 

 wearing as an amulet or fetich. Young men 

 eagerly purchased them, paying the full value 

 of a prime marten skin in order to wear them 

 as a personal adornment, that they might thus 

 become endowed with the hunting prowess of 

 this fierce little carnivore. Fathers often 

 bought them to attach to the belts of their 

 small sons, so that the youthful hunters might 

 become imbued with the spirit of this ''little 

 chief" among mammals. 



THE AMERICAN MINK (Mustela vison 



and its relatives) 



(For illustration, sec page 453') 



In the American mink we have one of the 

 most widely known and valuable fur-bearers of 

 the weasel family. It is a long-bodied animal, 

 but more heavily proportioned than the weasel, 

 and attains a weight of from one and one-half 

 to more than two pounds. It has short legs 

 and walks slowly and rather clumsily with the 

 back arched. When desiring to travel rapidly 

 it moves in, a series of rapid easy bounds which 

 it appears able to continue tirelessly. 



The minks form a small group of species 

 circumpolar in distribution, and well known in 

 Europe, northern Asia, and in North America. 

 The European animal is closely similar to the 

 North American species and all have the same 

 amphibious habits. The American minks include 

 several different geographic races, which are 

 distributed over all the northern part of the 

 continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific and 

 from the mouths of the Yukon and Mackenzie 

 Rivers to the Gulf coast in the United States. 

 They are absent from the arid Southwestern 

 States. 



Few species are more perfectly adapted to a 

 double mode of life than the mink. It is equally 

 at home slyly searching thickets and bottom- 

 land forests for prey or seeking it with otter- 

 like prowess beneath the water. It is a restless 

 animal, active both by day and by night, al- 

 though mainly nocturnal. 



While usually having definite dens to which 

 they return, minks wander widely and for so 



