THE SOUTHEASTERN MINK. 



58)3 



Referring to their speed and ability to hide anywhere, Stone 

 and Cram say: have seen them disappear instantly among the 

 dry oak leaves that carpet the open where hardwood grows, and 

 they will do the same thing in short thin grass or shallow snow 

 with a suddenness that leaves the beholder wondering. At such 

 times, if they deign to show themselves again, it will in all proba- 

 bility be several rods at least from where they first disappeared, and 

 then perhaps only for the briefest glimpse. 



' ' Only yesterday I was sitting beneath a sheltered bank, warmed 

 by the thin sunlight of late November and w^ell out of the reach of 

 the roaring north wind, when I heard a rustling among the leaves 

 eight or ten rods away. Looking toward the sound, I saw, just 

 for an instant, a beautiful little female mink with the sun full on 

 her back, then saw only the russet-colored leaves sloping up be- 

 tween the tree trunks ; but even while I looked there was the mink 

 again, several rods farther away and just in the act of vanishing 

 as before. 



"I squeaked like a mouse to call her, but the wind was so loud 

 in the trees that I failed to make myself heard; so I imitated the 

 chatter of a red squirrel as closely as I could, and instantly the 

 mink came skipping toward me over the ice of a little pond that lay 

 between us. 



''I do not think that I have ever seen any other four-footed 

 creature, not even a deer or a fox, run with such baffling swiftness. 

 I could just catch one image of her coming, head up across the 

 sunlit ice before she disappeared in the sere frozen water grass al- 

 most at my feet. ' ' 



As already indicated, minks obtain much of their food from 

 the water. They swim w4th enough speed to enable them to catch 

 fish, of which they are very fond, and in addition they eat cray- 

 fish and mollusks. They destroy great numbers of mice and also 

 many of the smaller game animals, such as muskrats, rabbits and 

 squirrels. Song and game birds are also killed. How^ever, the 

 greatest harm done by these animals is in the poultry yards. Prof. 

 Cox has recorded the killing of 24 half-grown chickens by a mink 

 in a single night. I have heard of one of the animals killing twelve 

 chickens one night and seven in the same poultry house the next 

 night. In both instances the animal was frightened away or might 

 have killed more. Where they come upon such a supply of food 

 as this, they never eat much of the flesh, but suck the warm blood. 

 They travel long distance^ in search of food. One hunter writes 



