224 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



Johnson in his very interesting and valuable bulletin 

 on the New York muskrat quotes two trappers of western 

 New York as saying: "After mating, the male muskrat 

 seems to go into hiding or retirement. These men make 

 it a practice, they said, in their spring trapping, never to 

 set traps near the muskrat houses, and for that reason 

 catch few females, since the males alone travel about in 

 search of mates. When the females have mated they be- 

 come more active, wandering about a great deal more than 

 at other times, and are taken in traps in numbers. This 

 is the signal for these men to take up their traps." 



This observation is quoted for two reasons : the mating 

 season, following the winter quiscence, begins in western 

 New York during the month of March, depending, nat- 

 urally, on the lateness of the spring; therefore, a decided 

 mating movement animates the species as a whole at one 

 and the same time, while in Louisiana the sub-tropical 

 winter has evidently no deterring effect on mating perform- 

 ances. Here, it should be pointed out. we have not seen 

 any evidences of the male going into retirement or "hiding" 

 after carrying on his mating forays. To the contrary, the 

 boar seems to be continually on the go, except when he is 

 busy fixing up his bachelor quarters. 



In spite of the attention that naturalists have given this 

 valuable, widely distributed, and very prolific little fur ani- 

 mal, we do not know everything we should regarding its 

 reproduction. This important information is yet to be se- 

 cured, and we are placed in the position of setting down 

 positively the things we do not know. To illustrate: the 

 exact period of gestation is unknown, we have no conclusive 

 evidence as to the number of litters one female will normal- 

 ly bear in a twelve-month season, and we do not positively 

 know that the young of the first spring litter will produce 

 young by fall, although we are able, from the meagre in- 

 formation at hand, to deduce something at least approxi- 

 mating the facts. 



Fertility has been associated with climatic conditions — 

 the milder regions of our continent have been credited with 

 larger breeding seasons and on this assumption the Louisi- 



