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A MYSTERY SOLVED.

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mink subsists. We have sometimes seen it feeding on frogs and cray-fish. In the Northern States we have often observed it with a Wilson's meadow-mouse in its mouth, and in Carolina the very common cotton-rat furnishes no small proportion of its food. We have frequently remarked it coursing along the edges of the marshes, and found that it was in search of this rat, which frequents such localities, and we discovered that it was not an unsuccessful mouser. We once saw a mink issuing from a hole in the earth, dragging by the neck a large Florida rat.

In the vicinity of Charleston, South Carolina, a hen-house was one season robbed several nights in succession, the owner.counting a chicken less every morning. No idea could be formed, however, of the manner in which it was carried off. The building was erected on posts, and was securely locked, in addition to which precaution a very vigilant watch-dog was now put on guard, being chained underneath the chicken-house. Still, the number of fowls in it diminished nightly, and one was as before missed every morning.

We were at last requested to endeavour to ascertain the cause of the vexatious and singular abstraction of our friend's chickens, and on a careful examination we discovered a small hole in a corner of the building, leading to a cavity

between the weather-boarding and the sill. On gently forcing outward a plank, we perceived the bright eyes of a mink peering at us and shining like a pair of diamonds. He had long been thus snugly ensconced, and was enabled to supply himself with a regular feast without leaving the house, as the hole opened toward the inside on the floor. Summary justice was inflicted, of course, on the concealed robber, and peace and security once more were restored in the precincts of the chicken-yard.

This species is very numerous in the saltmarshes of the Southern states, where it subsists principally on the marsh-hen, the sea-side finch, and the sharp-tailed finch, which, during a considerable portion of the year, feed on the minute shell-fish and aquatic insects left on the mud and oysterbanks, on the subsiding of the waters. We have seen a mink winding stealthily through the tall marsh-grass, pausing occasionally to take an observation, and sometimes lying for the space of a minute flat upon the mud: at length it draws its hind-feet far forwards under its body in the manner of a cat, its back is arched, its tail curled, and it makes a sudden spring. The screams of a captured marsh-hen succeed, and its upraised fluttering wing gives sufficient evidence that it is about to be trans

EFFECT OF FEAR ON ANIMALS.

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ferred from its pleasant haunts in the marshes to the capacious maw of the hungry mink.

It is at low tide that this animal usually captures the marsh-hen. We have often at high spring tide observed a dozen of those birds standing on a small field of floating sticks and matted grasses, gazing stupidly at a mink seated not five feet from them. No attempt was made by the latter to capture the birds that were now within his reach. At first we supposed that he might have already been satiated with food and was disposed to leave the tempting marsh-hens till his appetite called for more; but we were after more mature reflection inclined to think that the high spring tides which occur, exposing the whole marsh to view and leaving no place of concealment, frighten the mink as well as the marsh-hen; and as misery sometimes makes us familiar with strange associates, so the mink and the marsh-hen like neighbour and brother hold on to their little floating islands till the waters subside, when each again follows the instincts of nature. An instance of a similar effect of fear on other animals was related to us by an old resident of Carolina: some forty years ago, during a tremendous flood in the Santee river, he saw two or three deer on a small mound not twenty feet in diameter, surrounded by a wide sea of waters, with a cougar seated in the midst

of them; both parties, having seemingly entered into a truce at a time when their lives seemed equally in jeopardy, were apparently disposed peaceably to await the falling of the waters that surrounded them.

This species prefers taking up its residence on the borders of ponds and along the banks of small streams, rather than along large and broad rivers. It delights in frequenting the foot of rapids and waterfalls. When pursued, it flies for shelter to the water, an element suited to its amphibious habits, or to some retreat beneath the banks of the stream. It runs tolerably tell on high ground, and we have found it on several occasions no easy matter to overtake it, and when overtaken, we have learned to our cost, that it was rather a troublesome customer about our feet and legs, where its sharp canine teeth made some uncomfortable indentations; neither was its odour as pleasant as we could have desired. It is generally supposed that the mink never resorts to a tree to avoid pursuit; we have, however, witnessed one instance to the contrary. In hunting for the ruffed-grouse, we observed a little dog that accompanied us, barking at the stem of a young tree, and on looking up, perceived a mink seated in the first fork, about twelve feet from the ground. Our friend, the late Dr. Wright, of Troy, informed us that

MODE OF CAPTURE.

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whilst he was walking on the border of a wood, near a stream, a small animal which he supposed to be a black squirrel, rushed from a tuft of grass, and ascended a tree. After gaining a seat on a projecting branch, it peeped down at the intruder on its haunts, when he shot it, and picking it up, ascertained that it was a mink.

We think, however, that this animal is not often seen to ascend a tree, and these are the only instances of its doing so, which are known to us.

This species is a good swimmer, and like the musk-rat, dives at the flash of a gun; we have observed, that the percussion-cap now in general use is too quick for its motions, and that this invention bids fair greatly to lesson its numbers. When shot in the water, the body of the mink, as well as that of the otter, has so little buoyancy, and its bones are so heavy, that it almost invariably sinks.

The mink, like the musk-rat and ermine, does not possess much cunning, and is easily captured in any kind of trap; it is taken in steel. traps and box-traps, but more generally in what are called dead-falls. It is attracted by any kind of flesh, but we have usually seen the traps baited with the head of a ruffed grouse, wild duck, chicken, jay, or other bird. The mink is exceedingly tenacious of life, and we have found

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