es,
its size being variable.

The fur of the mink is excellent in quality, and has for many years
been one of the "fancy furs" of fashion, a good prime skin often
bringing from ten to twelve dollars. The introduction of the fur
seal, however, and the universal demand for this as well as otter
fur, has somewhat thrown the mink into comparative shade, although
extra fine skins will still command high prices.

The mink is an aquatic animal, inhabiting small rivers and streams,
and living somewhat after the manner of the otter. It has a most
wide range of diet, and will eat almost anything which is at all
eatable. Fishes, frogs, and muskrats are his especial delight,
and he will occasionally succeed in pouncing upon a snipe or wild
duck, which he will greedily devour. Crawfish,
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snails, and water insects of all kinds also come within the
range of his diet, and he sometimes makes a stray visit to some
neighboring poultry yard to satisfy the craving of his abnormal
hunger. A meal off from his own offspring often answers the same
purpose; and a young chicken in the egg he considers the ne plus
ultra of delicacies. The voracity of this animal is its leading
characteristic, and is so largely in excess of its cunning or sagacity
that it will often run headlong into a naked trap. Its sense of
smell is exceedingly well developed, and through this faculty it
is often enabled to track its prey with ease and certainty. The
mink lives in burrows, in steep banks, or between rocks or the
roots of trees, and the young, five or six in number, are brought
forth in May.

[Illustration]

The chief occupation of the mink consists in perpetual search for
something to eat, and, when so engaged, he may be seen running
along the bank of the stream, peering into every nook and corner,
and literally "leaving no stone unturned" in its eager search.
Taking advantage of this habit, it becomes an easy matter to trap
the greedy animal. Set your trap, a Newhouse No. 2, in an inch
of water near the edge of the stream, and directly in front of
a steep bank or rock, on which you can place your bait. The bait
may be a frog, fish, or head of a
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bird, suspended about eighteen inches above the water, and should
be so situated that in order to reach it, the mink will be obliged
to tread upon the trap. The trap may also be set in the water and
the bait suspended eighteen inches above it, by the aid of a switch
planted in the mud near