BULLETIN OF THE UNITED STATES FISH COMMISSION. 297 



The hog-like character of carp in plowing np the bottom and banks 

 of the pond, thereby keeping the water muddy and rendering them- 

 selves invisible, enables the entrance to the musk-rat's burrow to be 

 concealed until the water is drawn off. The fry and older carp stupidly 

 poke themselves into these burrows, thus making themselves an easy 

 prey to these active rodents. When ice forms, and the carp settle 

 numb and torpid to the bottom, then, in my opinion, the ravages of the 

 musk-rat are most to be feared by the fish-culturist; but before that 

 time he should get rid of these pests.* 



Cleveland, Ohio, Wovemherl, 1883. 



158 — THE MUSK-RAT AS A F5SH EATER. 



By C. HART MEBRIAM, M. D. 



That the musk-rat is not commonly considered a fish eater is evident 

 from the absence of reference to such habit in the published accounts 

 of the animal. Eobert Kennicott is, so far as I have been able to as- 

 certain, the only author who mentions this trait. He says : " Except 

 in eating raollusks, and occasionally a dead fish, I am not aware that 

 this species departs from a vegetable diet." ["Quadrupeds of Illinois 

 Injurious and Beneficial to the Farmer," 1857, p. 106.] 



At a meeting of the Biological Society of Washington, held in the 

 National Museum, December 14, 1883, Mr. Henry W. Elliott spoke of 

 the "Appetite of the Musk-rat." He stated that in certain parts of Ohio 

 the musk-rat did great injury to carp ponds, not only by perforating 

 the banks and dams and thus letting off the water, but also by actually 

 capturing and devouring the carp, which is a sluggish fish, often re- 

 maining motionless, half buried in the mud. In the discussion that fol- 

 lowed, Dr. Mason Graham EUzey said that from boyhood he had been 

 familiar with the fact that the musk-rat sometimes eats fish. In fact, he 

 had seen musk-rats in the act of devouring fish that had recently been 

 caught and left upon the bank. The president, Dr. Charles A. White, 

 narrated a similar experience. 



On the 7th of February, 1884, I brought this subject to the notice of 

 the Linnfean Society of New York, and asked if any of the members 

 knew the musk-rat to be a fish eater. Dr. Edgar A. Mearns said that 

 he had long been familiar with the fact, and that it was no uncommon 

 thing to see a musk-rat munching a dead fish upon the borders of the 

 salt marshes along the Hudson. He has shot them while so engaged. 



"Under date of November 16, 18d3, Dr. Hessel, superinteadeut of the Governmeut 

 carp ponds at Washington, says: "The musk-rats have now taken to their winter 

 quarters, and not one is to be found at the ponds. Four weeks ago I smoked out all 

 their holes with sulphur and saltpeter. I then filled them up with earth."— C. W. S. 



