CONCORD. 
J L~' 
1892 
h 39 
Mink 
j_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 and occasionally laterTj 
I spent most of the day in superintending the 
moving of my boathouse from the Manse to the Buttricks* 
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 dead 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 us. Apparently 
reassured, he continued on his way, now moving very slowly 
with a crawling gait, his body lengthened and flattened, 
his belly brushing the ice, reminding me of the movement 
<£r 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 and disappeared, I 
rowed under the bridge and found him lying curled up in 
the sun on a stone on the south side of the western abut¬ 
ment. Here he spent an hour or more lapping and dressing 
his fur and sleeping. He would let me get within ten 
yards, then rising would blink at me in a sleepy way and 
turning disappear into a crevice immediately popping out 
his head again, and resuming his original place as soon 
as I moved away. When sleeping, he lay curled in a circle 
