The Fur Animals of Louisiana 



233 



The bulrush (Scirpus validus) is one of the important muskrat foods and occurs 



throughout Louisiana. 



These plants, the three-square club rushes, are the pre- 

 dominant flora on the greatest muskrat-producing areas, 

 and veteran trappers know that where these grasses grow 

 they will find their prey. 



These are the leafy three-square (Scirpus robustus), the 

 bayonet three-square (Scirpus olneyi) , and the maritime 

 or salt water three-square rush (Scirpus americanus). 



These sedges or grasses are well known to our native 

 trappers, but not by the book or scientific names we give 

 them. All three are called "three-cornered grass," because 

 of the triangular shape of the stems; or "goose grass," be- 

 cause of the fondness the great flocks of blue and snow 

 geese have for the basal parts of the stems and the rooting 

 systems. A French-speaking trapper calls the "goose-grass" 

 paille des oie, merely a translation of the term, which is 

 sometimes shortened to paille d'oie. 



