The Fur Animals of Louisiana 273 



available, and the muskrats are noticeably scarce in even 

 these wet places. It seems more than probable that the 

 muskrats are simply devoured wherever this host of ene- 

 mies can reach them, and that those occupying the marshes 

 .are merely what are left from a very prolific species, and 

 that as they increase and spread to the shores, as they are 

 known to do, they become food for the reptiles and fishes. 

 But for surpassingly favorable food and living conditions, 

 and the fact that they breed during almost if not the entire 

 year, they would have been exterminated or kept back as 

 they have been from the marshless stream country immedi- 

 ately northward of the marsh country. A wide belt seems 

 to separate the range of this species on the north from 

 the southern known limit of range of Fiber zibethicus zi- 

 bethicus." 



The Muskrat as Human Food 



The muskrat's flesh, although it is an excellent and 

 palatable food for human beings, is not so recognized in 

 Louisiana. This in spite of the fact that it was used by the 

 first white men who came to this country, who learned the 

 Indian methods of cooking it, and the further fact that 

 many people of refined tastes today, especially in Balti- 

 more and Washington, D. C, buy the muskrat carcasses in 

 the markets of those cities and use it on the table just as 

 many of us prepare and eat rabbit meat. 



There are two things that militate against the use of 

 this animal's flesh as human food; the first, and foremost, 

 being the designation of this animal as a "rat;" the second 

 being the fact that sometimes the musk glands are cut and 

 the meat thus becomes impregnated with a musky flavor. 

 To overcome the second objection care should be exercised 

 in skinning the pelt, the musk glands should not be cut into, 

 as they can be removed whole when the skin is taken off 

 and the animal's hair should not be'allowed to come in con- 

 tact with the flesh. 



The first objection, unfortunately, cannot be so easily 

 removed. The fact that the animal has a "ratty" designa- 

 tion means that mind will always overshadow matter. If 

 the old Indian names of musquash or pichali could be used, 



