582 



KEPORT OP STATE DEOLOCTST. 



Diagnostic chm^acters. — Color dark chestnut brown, with a white 

 spot on the chin and another between the fore legs. Length about 27 

 inches. 



Description. — The mink resembles the otter quite closely in form 

 of body, but the legs are proportionally longer and the animal is 

 more active on land. The color is darker and the tail is about one- 

 third as long as the head and body; outer third of tail darker in 

 color. 



Measurements. — Miller gives the following: Total length, 635 

 mm. (25 in.) ; tail, 210 mm. (814 in.) ; hind foot, 70 mm. {2% in.). 

 The size varies greatly, and I have seen a few minks very much 

 above the average size. I am not absolutely sure that these large 

 ones may not be a distinct species, although they have not been 

 recognized as such. One of unusually large size was taken near 

 Hazelton in 1908. 



Skull and teeth. — The skull is compact like that of all other 

 Mustelidae. The bony palate extends considerably farther back 

 than the rather short tooth row and is V-shaped behind instead of 

 being somewhat square as in the skunks. There is a considerable 

 space between the outer upper incisors and the canines. The upper 

 molar is broader (transverse to the skull) than long, and the last 

 upper premolar has three prongs, making it somewhat Y-shaped. 



Range. — This subspecies has a range extending from the Gulf 

 States to southern Canada. Other minks are found throughout 

 most of the country from Mexico to the Arctic Ocean. 



Minks were once numerous throughout most of Indiana. They 

 have been trapped and hunted for their fur to such an extent that 

 they are now considerably reduced in numbers, but even yet are by 

 no means rare where swamps and woods remain. In 1893 Butler 

 saw three in daylight, playing about a drift pile along a little 

 stream within the corporate limits of Brookville. 



Ilahits. — These animals are very perfectly adapted for a life of 

 activity, danger and destruction. In the water they swim and dive 

 with the agility and speed of an otter. On land, they hunt with 

 the stealth of a cat and run with the speed of a coyote. They are 

 instinctively timid, and do not blunder into traps with the stupidity 

 of a rodent, but they never learn to keep away from habitations 

 or to avoid the smell of man and iron, in this way seeming unable 

 to profit by experience, as do foxes and coyotes. This latter fact 

 probably has mon^ to do with the diminution of their number than 

 does the great amouni of persfMMitioii. 



