1892
March 29
Concord, Massachusetts.
Mass.
Concord. - Cloudless but cool with blustering N.W. wind.
  Birds did not sing freely owing to the high wind
but I heard Song Sparrows, Bluebirds and Meadow Larks
near the house in the early morning & occasionally later.
  I spent most of the day in superintending the
moving of my boat-house from the Manse to the
Buttrick's landing. We floated it down. During my
first trip in my boat between the two points just
mentioned I started a Mink from a bunch of dried
grass on the west bank a little below the "Minute Man".
He galloped for a few yards along the shore ice, then
stopped and sat up on his hind legs like a Squirrel
looking at me. Apparently reassured he continued on his
way now moving very slowly with a crawling gait, his
body lengthened & flattened, his belly brushing the ice,
reminding me of the movement of a toad creeping towards
a fly. On reaching the bridge he sprang nimbly from
stone to stone and on reaching the top of the bank
crossed the roadway & disappeared. I rowed under the
bridge & found him lying curled up in the sun on
a stone on the north side of the western abutment.
Here he spent an hour or more lapping and dressing
his fur and sleeping. He would let me get within two
yards then rising would blink at me in a sleepy way
and turning disappear into a crevice immediately popping
out his head again resuming his original place as soon
as I moved away. When sleeping he lay curled in a
circle like a bat. He had a weasel-like way of screwing
the head from side to side when looking at me. The
expression of the face was at times keen and cruel
at others stupid or perhaps silly. The tips of the
[margin]Mink[/margin]