RANDOM NOTES ON NATURAL HISTORY. 



43 



empty shells are fomid in very consider- 

 able piles. I have carefully examined 

 these shell heaps, and, although I some- 

 times find on the edge of the valves 

 what might be a tooth-mark, the major- 

 ity of them were uninjured and the 

 others were so slightly broken that it 

 could have done no possible harm to the 

 mollusk. How the animal obtains entrance 

 to the shells remains therefore a mystery. 

 Dr. John D. Godnian, in The Eaynbles 

 of a Naturalist, says it is by inserting the 

 claws between the valves and tearing them 

 open by main force. I do not think it pos- 

 sible, as the application of any force 

 would break the delicate edges and the 

 thinnest knife-blade can hardly be in- 

 troduced between the valves when the mol- 

 lusk is in a liealthy condition. 



There seems abundant testimony that 

 some Muskrats eat fish, and perhaps each 

 other. It is certain that they fight 

 furiously among themselves, but of positive 

 cannibalism, or the finding of anj' fish 

 bones on their feeding grounds, I cannot 

 learn anything. 



Mr. N. W. Thatcher, to whom I am 

 indebted for much information, has had 

 large experience, and does not know of an}' 

 case applicable to Rhode Island, his traps 

 have, however, been several times visited 

 by mink and the confined rat mutilated or 

 demolished, while there are several in- 

 stances of dead Muskrats lying unmolested 

 for days in ponds where there were other 

 living ones. 



Mr. Thatcher bears evidence to their 

 ability to remain under water an aston- 

 ishing length of time ; swimming swiftly 

 awa}', their course can be determined with 

 some accuracy by minute bubbles that rise 

 to the surface. A most remarkable instance 

 happened in a fresh-mown meadow in East 

 Providence, where the spring rains had left 

 a pond not over two feet deep and entirely 

 surrounded by gentl}' sloping land. My 

 friend with a companion drove a Muskrat 

 into this pond, where it dove and disap- 

 peared. After waiting twenty minutes, 

 during which the glassy surface of the 

 water was unruffled, knowing that the 

 creature could not have a burrow in such a 

 place, Mr. Thatcher waded all around the 

 pond and finally across it, discovering 

 through the shallow and clear water the rat 



lying close on the bottom, where he re- 

 mained until Mr. Thatcher, coming up care- 

 fully behind, planted one foot firmly on 

 him and finally crippled him with the other. 

 The animal will average twenty-two 

 inches from tip to tip. The upper parts 

 and outside of hind legs are very dark 

 brown, a chestnut brown on the belly sides 

 of head and body, but on parting the hairs 

 an under pellage of light bluish gray is very 

 noticeable, the tail, black, flattened, covered 

 with small scales and sparsely dotted with 

 hairs, is about seven inches long. 



* The Muskrat has a wide range through 

 North America and maintains its foothold 

 successfully against the destructiveness of 

 mankind. It extends from the Atlantic to 

 the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande to the 

 barren grounds of Arctic America. The 

 species is quite abundant in Washington 

 Territory, and extends almost to the ex- 

 treme northwestern point of America. 



A specimen curiously albinistic was 

 taken in Cranston, Nov. 11, 1883, and re- 

 ported in the issue of this magazine, Feb- 

 ruary, 1884. 



This article, already too long for our 

 limited space, does not by any means ex- 

 haust the subject, and for a most enter- 

 taining description of the animal and its 

 habits we recommend our readers to Vol. 

 II. of the Transactions of the Linna^an 

 Society, of New York. S. 



Besides the White-cheeked Warbler which 

 is in my collecTion, taken May 30, 1879, 

 the capture of which was recorded in the 

 Nuttall Bulletin, I have seen one other. It 

 was in the spring of 1880, in a swamp 

 amongst the twigs of a large blooming 

 blueberry bush, sipping the nectar from 

 the little white bells. I was but a few feet 

 from it, and readily recognized it. It was 

 ver}' tame and too near to shoot, but dur- 

 ing my efforts to get at a proper shooting 

 distance, it took alarm and vanished from 

 view. J. N. Clark. 



Saybrook, Conn. 



Remember two very important objects in 

 ventilation, and two which go hand in hand : 

 To warm the air, and, at the same time, to 

 keep it moist. — Sanitary Gleanings. 



* Pacific R. K. Survey, Vol. VIII. 



