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Home Department. Foreign Department. Colonial Department. War Department. 1855. Sir G. Grey Earl of Clarendon Sidney Herbert Lord Panmure.* 1855 ...... .... Lord J. Russell. [Taunton 1855 .... ........ H Labouchere, aft. Lord 1858 S. H. Walpole .... Earl of Malmesbury Lord Stanley Jonathan Peel. Home Department. Foreign Department. Colonial Dipartment Sir E. G. E. Bulwer Lytton, cr. Baron Duke of Newcastle Earl of Carnarvon . Duke of Buckingham Earl Granville Earl of Carnarvon Sir M. Hicks Beach, cr. Viscount St Aldwyn Earl of Kimberley Earl of Derby 1858 S. H. Walpole Earl of Malmesbury Lytton 1866 1859 T. H. S. SotheronEstcourt. 1859 Sir G. Cornewall Lord J. Russell, cr. Earl Lewis Russell 1861 1861. Sir G. Grey . ... 1863 ..... 1864 . ...... . E. Cardwell 1865 . .. Earl of Clarendon. 1866. S. H. Walpole Lord Stanley, aft. Earl of Derby 1867 .. .. ... .. 1868. H. A. Bruce, -cr. Earl of Clarendon - Baron Aberdare r 1 1873 1870 . . .. Earl Granville Earl of Kimberley. 1874. Sir R. A. Cross Earl of Derby 1878 . .. Marquess of Salisbury 1906 1880. Sir W. Vernon Har- Earl Granville court 1882 .... . .... 1885. Sir R. A. Cross, cr. Marquess of Salisbury. 1886 1886 Viscount Cross 1886 H. c. E. chndéfs f Earl of Rosebery 1886. H. Matthews, cr. Earl of Iddesleigh Viscount Llandalf 1895 1887 .. . Marquess of Salisbury. 1892. H. H. Asquith Earl of Rosebery. 1894 . ... Earl of Kimberley 1895 Sir M. White Ridley, Marquess of Salisbury. cr. Viscount Ridley 1900 Sir F. A. Stanley, cr. Baron Stanley of Preston 1886, aft. Earl of Derby Earl Granville E. Stanhope Sir H.T.Holland, cr Viscount Knutsford 1895. Marquess of Ripon J. Chamberlain War Department. Jonathan Peel S. Herbert, cr. Lord Herbert of Lea 1861 Sir G. C. Lewis. Earl de Grey and Ripon, aft. Marquess of Ripon Jonathan Peel Sir J. S. Pakington, aft. Baron Hampton E. Cardwell, cr. Viscount Cardwell 1874 G. Hardy . F. A. Stanley H. C. E. Childers Marquess of Hartington, aft. D. of Devonshire W. H. Smith Viscount Cranbrook. H. Campbell-Bannerman W. H. Smith. E. Stanhope. H. Campbell-Bannerman Marquess of Lansdowne Hon. W. St Brodrick, aft. Viscount Midleton H. O. Arnold-Forster R. B. Haldane India Department. Lord Stanley. Sir C.Wo0d, cr. Viscount Halifax 1866. Viscount Cranborne. Sir S. H. Northcote, cr. Earl of Iddesleigh 1885 Duke of Argyll. V Marquess of Salisbury. G. Hardy, cr. Viscount Cranbrook 1878. Marquess of Hartington Earl of Kimberley. Lord R. Churchill. Earl of Kimberley. Viscount Cross. Earl of Kimberley. H. H. Fowler, cr. Viscount Wolverhampton 1908. Lord G. Hamilton. Hon. W. St J. Brodrick. J. Morley, aft. Viscount Morley of Blackburn. 1900. C. T. Ritchie, cr. Marquessof Lansdowne Baron Ritchie of Dundee 1905 1902. A. Akers-Douglas. 1903. .. .. Hon. A. Lyttelton 1905. H. J. Gladstone, cr. Sir E. Grey Earl of Elgin . V Viscount Gladstone 1910 1908 ...... . Earl of Crewe. 1910. Winston S. Churchill. I

MINK, a name for certain large species of the zoological genus Putorius (Polecat), distinguished by slight structural modifications and semi-aquatic habits. The two best-known species, so much alike in size, form, colour and habits that, although they are widely separated geographically, some zoologists question their specific distinction, are P. lutreola, the Nörz or Sumpfotter (marsh-otter) of eastern Europe, and P. vison, the mink of North America. The former inhabits Finland, Poland and the greater part of Russia, though not found east of the Ural Mountains. Formerly it extended westward into central Germany, but it is now very rare, if not extinct, in that country. The latter is found in places which suit its habits throughout the whole of North America. Another form, P. sibiricus, from eastern Asia, of which much less is known, appears to connect the true minks with the polecats.

The name may have originated in the Swedish maenk applied to the European animal. Captain John Smith, in his History of Virginia (1626), at p. 27 speaks of “ Martins, Powlecats, Weesels and Minkes,” showing that the animal must at that time have been distinguished by a vernacular appellation from its congeners. By later authors, as Lawson (1709) and Pennant (1784), it is often written “ Minx.” For the following description, chiefly taken from the American form (though almost equally applicable to that of Europe) we are mainly indebted to Dr Elliott Coue’s Fur-bearing Animals of North America, 1877.

In size it much resembles the English polecat—the length of the head and body being usually from 15 to 18 in., that of the tail to the end of the hair about 9 in. The female is considerably smaller than the male. The tail is bushy, but tapering at the end. The ears are small, low, rounded, and scarcely project beyond the adjacent fur. The pelage consists of a dense, soft, matted under fur, mixed with long, stiff, lustrous hairs on all parts of the body and tail. The gloss is greatest on the upper parts; on the tail the bristly hairs predominate. Northern specimens have the finest and most glistening pelage; in those from southern regions there is less difference between the under and over fur, and the whole pelage is coarser and harsher. In colour different specimens present a considerable range of variation, but the animal is ordinarily of a rich dark brown, scarcely

or not paler below than on the general upper parts; but the back