302 Department of Conservation of Louisiana 



thereon, for the muskrat is like all other game animals — 

 they must have cover and sufficient food in their habitat 

 to propagate and increase, as they have a great many nat- 

 ural enemies." 



In this same official's estimation, Dorchester county 

 leads in the number of muskrats taken in Maryland. This 

 animal's natural habitat in the state includes all counties 

 bordering the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries, and 

 muskrats are also found along the streams of western 

 Maryland, but instead of being termed "marsh rabbit" 

 (which is the common market name for our friend the 

 muskrat in that section of the United States) , or even marsh 

 muskrat, they are known as "bank 'rats," and, according 

 to Mr. LeCompte, they are harder to trap than the animals 

 found in the tidewater marshes. 



It is learned that a great many of the owners of large 

 marsh areas in Maryland do not lease or rent their muskrat 

 marshes, but compensate the trapper who catches the ani- 

 mal at the rate of 50 cents a pelt for every one skinned 

 out, and the trapper, additionally, receives a certain per- 

 centage from the sale of the flesh of the carcess, for the 

 muskrat is sold in the big markets of Baltimore and Wash- 

 ington, D. C, under the nome de musquash of "marsh- 

 rabbit," and is, rightly so, considered a delicacy. 



The muskrat industry of Maryland, from what Mr. Le- 

 Compte tells us, is a stable one, for, due to the fact that 

 lands upon which this animal is found in greatest numbers 

 are not tillable arable lands and all that they will raise is 

 the muskrat and the foods on which it thrives best. Assess- 

 ments on this class of land are lower than on land that can 

 be cultivated for agricultural purposes, and, whether the 

 trapper's catch is a large or small one, the purchase of such 

 lands is a profitable undertaking when compared to the 

 amount of money invested, he finds. 



Maryland's "Black" Muskrat 



Considerable interest has always been manifest in the 

 so-called black muskrats from the Chesapeake region. These 

 animals are not absolutely black, as seems to be the general 



