256 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



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Ground plan of a typical muskrat house, with underground runways and surface 

 trails. The surface trails are shown by barred lines, and the many dive holes of the- 

 underground system indicated. Widened parts of the underground passages with cross- 

 hatched lines show beds or sleeping quarters in use when the subways are not filled, 

 with water. 



The accompanying sketch indicates the ground plan of 

 a typical muskrat house, the dive holes, entrance tunnels, 

 surface trails and the cleared area which surrounds, as a 

 rule, all such habitations. The Louisiana trapping laws 

 forbid the setting of a trap within ten feet of these houses 

 and it is a most excellent conservation provision, for it 

 preserves in no small way the young and the mother 'rat. 

 Our law, too, forbids the molestation of the houses in any 

 manner, and gigging, pitchforking, or the tearing apart of 

 the houses in any way is punishable by fine and imprison- 

 ment. 



Houses are built by the adult animals. Pairs, if it is true 

 our muskrats actually pair, build them. Females build them 

 unaided by the boar. Males build themselves bachelor quar- 

 ters and it seems to be proved that such quarters are among 

 the smallest houses found in the marsh. Records are 



