THE MAMMALS OF NEW JERSEY. 71 
thick, with a dense wooly underfur, dark brown somewhat tinged 
with fulvous, especially on the sides, dull white below, with scat- 
tered fulvous hairs; throat and lips white with a brown spot on 
the chin. 
The muskrat is a distinctly aquatic species, abounding in the 
broad, marshy tracts bordering the larger streams and the bay 
shores of southern New Jersey. It also occurs along the banks of 
lakes and far up toward the head-waters of our small streams, as 
well as along the canals. By digging its burrows through the 
banks of the latter and through the dykes that are constructed 
here and there to protect meadows or to drain up the cranberry 
bogs, it does serious damage. In fact, this is about the only way 
in which the muskrat becomes an enemy to mankind. His food 
cunsists of various acquatic plants and roots which are of no 
especial value. 
The true home of the muskrat is a burrow in a bank, the mouth 
usually under water but the terminal nesting chamber clear above 
the water line. Here the little ones are born. In the larger bodies 
‘of water or in extensive marshes they build the large dome-shaped 
lodges which are so conspicuous, standing up in winter clear 
above the dead and flattened marsh grass like so many old fash- 
ioned ovens. ‘These are built of sods and tufts of grass and 
rushes, and are usually very hard and almost impenetrable to or- 
dinary enemies on the outside; inside is a chamber high up above 
the water line, lined with grass; below, passageways pass out 
through the water in several directions. The fur of the muskrat 
has always been a regular source of gain for the trapper and 
immense numbers of their pelts are sold annually in this State. 
Originally used only for caps, robes, ete., they are now prepared 
and dyed and constitute much of the commercial furs that are 
sold under the more alluring names. 
Fiber zibethicus Abbott, Cook’s Geol. of N. J., 1868, p. 758.— 
Abbott, A Naturalist’s Rambles, 1885, p. 451.—Beesley, Geol. 
Cape May Co., 1857, p. 137.—Rhoads, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. 
Phila., 1897, p. 27,—Rhoads, Mam. Pa. and N. J., 1905, p. 104. 
