Mink

a valuable fur-bearing animal belonging to the weasel family. The American mink is much larger than a weasel. Its body is about eighteen inches long, the tail about six. It is one of the most valuable North American fur animals. It is yet trapped systematically in the Hudson Bay country. Like the otter, it lives in ponds, rivers, and their banks, but feeds on a less exclusive fish diet. It is fond of fish and pursues them with great skill, but it is quite as well satisfied with a muskrat, a grouse, or a quail. The mink is quite an adept at concealing itself in the bank of a stream in well settled countries, and is given to visiting the poultry yard at night. It is dreaded especially on account of a bloodthirsty habit of cutting the throats of fowls, destroying oftentimes several valuable birds in a single night. Some attempts have been made to breed it for its fur. It has its full share of the musky odor which pervades the weasel family. The mink is literally "as quick as a weasel," which is saying a good deal. In running, the mink plants its hind feet in the tracks of its fore feet so that its track in the snow has the appearance of being made by an animal hopping along on two feet. A raw mink pelt is worth from five to fifteen dollars according to season and current demand. See Fur