GENERAL NOTES 
169 
Beneath a large pine the snow had fallen away from the trunk, leaving a deep 
hole around it; the mink circled this on the very edge. So through the woods. 
Only once did the animal break into a run which led it to the top of a small knoll 
overlooking a clearing bordered with groups of white birch, then it fell again into 
that leisurely pace across the untrod snow. The distance was nearly a mile to 
the edge of the woods. 
A large pasture appeared which sloped down into a low meadow where small 
trees and shrubbery grew sparingly. The mink paused at the top of the slope. 
Then it made a half circle or sortie to one side and left a small amber colored spot 
on the snow, then the tracks shot straight down the slope. Halfway down a 
number of pheasant tracks cut across lots; the birds had dropped a number of 
pellets and the mink jumped to one side to sniff at these. Beyond the lowlands 
stood a wall of hemlocks, and among the boundary trees grew willow, alder and 
birches. Towards these ran the trail, straight to a brook which lay half buried 
under the snow. 
At this point the tactics of the mink underwent a change; back in the woods 
the animal had seemed to be an idle prowler who merely glanced over prospects 
and never veered from a practically straight trail to explore even a rotten stump 
a yard or so to one side; while at the brook it seemed full of stealth and craftiness. 
The animal now became the seeker, the hunter, the killer. It jumped from the 
low bank into the water where grass swung lazily in the current ; its tracks appeared 
on the opposite shore where it made a wide circle of survey and turned to the brook 
again. The water was shallow in places, deep toward and under the south bank, 
and I knew of nothing the mink could stalk there unless it were a stray sucker, 
trout or muskrat. Long reaches of the stream were entirely roofed over with 
snow. The mink took the tunnel-way, and at one place it went in, came out and 
walked over and then followed the irregular shore again. Now it turned abruptly 
from the stream, paused under a little beech where white-footed mice had tracked 
the snow in every direction, trotted some fifty yards out on to the smooth floor of 
the meadow and turned to the brook again. What prompted this foray? The 
brook now ran under steep banks and was quite hidden. Once again the prowler 
kept me to an interesting pursuit. No spot along the brook or in the waters 
escaped its notice. No trails appeared, only those of the mink I was following. 
It ran up and down, over and around, back and fourth, from one bank to another. 
No evidence appeared of any kill or success in its hunting. 
Downstream a bit, the brook widened; the ground became marshy and hum- 
mocky. In the center of a clearing stood an old hemlock’, broken off some fifteen 
feet above the ground. In the upper end of this relic the openings of a number of 
woodpecker holes appeared. The mink left the brook and in a number of leaps 
came to the base of the trunk. Bits of bark on the snow showed it had climbed 
up to explore those holes for an unlucky downy or hairy woodpecker. Beyond 
the tree ran the tracks of a ruffed grouse, and these it followed along the hemlocks 
for some distance and then doubled on its trail back to the brook. A little farther 
downstream the animal deliberately walked through a steel trap, but the trap 
had been set long, was matted in the grass and partly covered with brook rubbish. 
Only a small stick, barely noticable, served as a marker. I do not know whether 
luck was with the mink or whether it knew that the trap was harmless. As the 
banks became higher the brook began to be completely roofed over. The mink 
