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Full Title
How to make and set traps : Including hints on how to trap moles, weasels, otter, rats, squirrels and birds. Also how to cure skins / by J. Harrington Keene.
Author
Keene, J. Harrington.
Date Added
9 January 2014
Format
Journal
Language
English
Publish Date
1902
Publisher
New York : Frank Tousey
Series
Ten cent handbooks > no. 40
Source
Dime Novel and Popular Literature
Alternate Title
Ten cent handbooks -- no. 40
Topic
Trapping > Handbooks, manuals, etc. Hunting > Handbooks, manuals, etc. Hides and skins > Handbooks, manuals, etc.
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OCR
~ HOW TO MAKE AND SET TRAPS. 57
are almost untamable, but young ones readily submit to
handling, and are easily domesticated. The time to secure
_ young minks is in May and June, when they begin to run with
their dams. The streams must. be quietly watched for mink
trails, and these tracked to the nest
When they leave the hole the old one may be shot, and
the young ones secured, or they may be dug out. Those
who own a breeding stock of minks ask high prices for
them; but trappers represent to us'that it is an easy matter
to get the wild young ones. J/abits.—A successful breeder
says that he does not attempt to tame the wild mink, but
only aims to supply for it in a small space all the necessities
_of its natural instincts. He says the mating season com-
mences about the tirst of March, and lasts two weeks, never
varying much from that date.
The female carries her young about six. weeks. In the
minkery, where diet, water, temperat ure, etc.,-are similar
with each animal, there ia 80 Jittle difference in the time of
mating and time of bearing young in different animals, that
five out of six litters dropped last spring, were born within
twelve hours of each other. The young are blind from four
to five weeks, but are very active, snd playful as kittens.
‘The mother weans them at from eicht to ten weeks old. At
four weeks the mother begins to feed them meat; this they
learn to suck before they have teeth to eat it. ‘
The nests in which the young are born are lined by the
mother with some soft material, and are made in the hollow
of some old stump, ‘or between the projecting roots of some
old tree, and always where it is perfectly dry. The nest is
located near pure running water, which the mother visits
twice every twenty-four hours. She feeds her young on frogs,
fish, birds, mice, crabs, etc., ete. The mink is from™ birth a
pattern of neatness and cleanliness, and a8 s00n as-a nest
begins to get-foul and offensive, she takes one of the young
_in her mouth, and depositing it in a clean, suitable place,
builds a nest about it, and then brings the balance of the lit-
ter. She feeds and cares for them until. they are three and a
half or four months old. When the young are weaned, about
the 10th of July, she builds her nest near the water, in which
the young soon learn to play. There are usually four in a
litter, though the number ranges from two to six. Towards
fall the mother separates them into pairs. One pair—or if
the number be odd, the cdd one—is left in the nest; the other
pair or pairs, she places them often half a mile from each
— other, and then seeks new quarters for herself.
The young.soon separate, ond each one catches his own
frogs, etc. They do not pair, but the male is a sort of rover
ana iree-lover, Minks are unsociable, petulant, vicious in
t