Speaker 1: Section fourteen of Birds and All Nature, Volume seven, two
Speaker 1: February nineteen hundred recorded for lebrivouxa talk by Tavarish the
Speaker 1: mink Porius vison. This soft fur bearing animal has been
Speaker 1: described by Audubon and Prince Devied. Its nearest relatives are
Speaker 1: very closely allied to the pole cat, and differ from
Speaker 1: it only by a flatter head, larger canine teeth, shorter legs,
Speaker 1: the presence of webs between the toes, a longer tail,
Speaker 1: and illustrious fur consisting of a close, smooth short hair
Speaker 1: resembling utter fur. Its color is a uniform brown. The
Speaker 1: fur of the American mink is much more esteemed than
Speaker 1: that of the European as it is softer and of
Speaker 1: a more wooly character. According to Audubon, the mink ranks
Speaker 1: next to thee in destructive capacity prowling around the farm
Speaker 1: yard or duck pond, and its presence is soon detected
Speaker 1: by the sudden disappearance of young chickens and ducklings. Audubon
Speaker 1: had a personal experience with the mink, which made its
Speaker 1: home in the stone dam of a small pond near
Speaker 1: the home of the naturalist. The pond had been dammed
Speaker 1: for the benefit of the ducks in the yard, and
Speaker 1: in this way afforded the mink hunting grounds of ample promise.
Speaker 1: Its hiding place had been selected with the cunning, very
Speaker 1: near the house, and still nearer the place where the
Speaker 1: chickens had to pass on their way to drink. In
Speaker 1: front of its hull were two large stones, which served
Speaker 1: the mink as a watch tower, from which it could
Speaker 1: overlook the yard as well as the pond. It would
Speaker 1: lie in wait for hours every day, and would carry
Speaker 1: away chickens and ducks in broad daylight. Audubon found the
Speaker 1: mink to be especially plentiful on the banks of the
Speaker 1: Ohio River, and there observed it to be of some
Speaker 1: use in catching mice and rats, but it was also
Speaker 1: addicted to poaching and fishing. The naturalist observed it to
Speaker 1: swim and dive with the greatest agility, and pursue and
Speaker 1: attack the quickest of fishes, such as the salmon and trout.
Speaker 1: It will eat frogs or lizards, but when food is
Speaker 1: plentiful it is very fastidious, preying upon rats, finches and ducks, hares, oysters,
Speaker 1: and other shellfish. In short, Brahm says it adapts itself
Speaker 1: to the locality and knows how to profit by whatever
Speaker 1: food supplies it may be able to find. When frightened,
Speaker 1: it gives forth a very fetid odor. Like the pole cat.
Speaker 1: The female gives birth to five or six young at
Speaker 1: about the end of April. If taken young, they get
Speaker 1: to be very tame and become real Richardson saw one
Speaker 1: in the possession of a Canadian lady who used to
Speaker 1: carry it about with her in her pocket. It is
Speaker 1: easily caught in a trap of any kind, but its
Speaker 1: tenacity of life renders it difficult to shoot. The European
Speaker 1: mink much resembles the American, accept that it is somewhat
Speaker 1: smaller and its fur is coarser. Upon a large farm
Speaker 1: in Michigan visited by the writer this summer ran a
Speaker 1: creek where the chickens. When the trough was dry and
Speaker 1: dry it usually was traveled to get a drink. In
Speaker 1: the bank of the creek, a mink made his home,
Speaker 1: and not a week past that one or more hens
Speaker 1: did not appear in the barnyard, crippled or mangled in
Speaker 1: a manner painful to behold. Painful that is to the visitor,
Speaker 1: but not apparently to the farmer, who only said, it's
Speaker 1: that darned mink. Some day, when I have time, I'll
Speaker 1: set a trap and catch him. And so went coolly
Speaker 1: on his way, leaving the poor maimed reaches to drag
Speaker 1: out a painful existence for days or weeks, hoping that
Speaker 1: nature would heal the wounds made by the mink. Aside
Speaker 1: from the lack of thrift thus shown by the farmer
Speaker 1: for the hens, when badly mangled in time succumbed, the
Speaker 1: inhumane aspect of the case never seemed to strike him.
Speaker 1: The cultivation of his fields left no time for cultivating
Speaker 1: the finer feelings of the heart end of Section fourteen.
Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain.