1866.] LORD — MUSK-RATS AS BUILDERS. 45 



THE MUSK-RATS AS BUILDERS AND MINERS.* 



By J. K. Lord, F. Z. S. 



The genus Fiber has hitherto been based on a solitary species, 

 the well-known musk-rat, the Fiber zibethicus of zoologists, the 

 musquash of Canadian trappers and fur traders, the ooklak of the 

 inland Indians west of the Rocky Mountains. Strictly American 

 mammals, musk-rats, true to their native proclivities, are habitual 

 wanderers, regardless of even < squatter's preemptive law,' unscru- 

 pulously seize on ' new locations ' that best befit their tastes and 

 requirements. 



A summer travelling party of musk-rats, on discovering a 

 desirable spot for a settlement, at once appropriate it. One species 

 sets to work and erects neat little dwellings, that are always placed 

 in the water ; the building materials fringe the pool, fixed on as 

 the village site. The other species, diggers by profession, scorn 

 the builder's art, and excavate houses on the bank of some lazy 

 stream or muddy pool. 



The requisite establishments complete, the emigrants settle 

 quietly to the ' struggle for existence,' and patiently bear as best 

 they can, the ills that musquash, like all other flesh, is heir to. 



A happy adaptability to extreme climatal changes, enables the 

 musk-rat to endure the scorching heat of an inter-tropical sun, or 

 the nipping cold of an Arctic winter, with trifling inconvenience 

 either to its health or happiness. Throughout the length and 

 breadth of Canada — tenanting the shoals of its countless lakes, the 

 banks of its many rivers, its oozy swamps and muddy, stagnant 

 pools — musk-rats are always to be found. Away into the trackless 

 wastes of the Hudson Bay Company ; by the lone, still ponds 

 scattered over the sunny prairies," or hid neath the shadows of the 



* Fiber zibethicus, Musk-Rat. 

 Synonym. — Castor zibethicus, ' Lin. Syst. Nat.,' i., 1766. 



Mus. zibethicus, « Gmelin Syst. Mat.,' i., 178S. 



Myocastor zibethicus, e Kerr's Linnaeus,' 1792. 



Fiber zibethictcs, Cuv., R. A.I., 1817, 192. 



Lemmus zibethicus, ' Fischer Synop.,' 1829, 289. 



Ondatra zibethictis, * Waterhouse Mag. Nat. Hist.,' iii., 1839, 594. 



Musk Beaver, ' Pennant's Aret. Zool.' 



Musquash, Wac-h-usk of the Crees and Hurons (the animal that 

 sits on the ice in a round form). 

 Nov. Sp. — Fiber osoyooseiisis (Lord), ( Proo. Zool. Soc.,' London, 1863. 



