FIBER ZIBETHICUS. l85 



disturbed, and sought temporary shelter elsewhere ; when I ^^ould 

 move to a new place, giving them time to recover from their fright." * 



That the Muskrat was at one time a very important article of com- 

 merce is evident from the fact that Dr. Richardson, in writing of it 

 in 1829, stated : " Between four and five hundred thousand skins are 

 annually imported into Great Britain from North America." f And 

 even at the present day several thousand are killed each year in the 

 United States alone. It is probable that no other North American 

 mammal is so extensively trapped by the rural small boy. This is 

 due to the great abundance of the species, even in populous districts, 

 and the ease with which it is trapped, rather than to its value, for 

 Muskrat pelts have always ranked among the cheaper furs, a single 

 skin rarely fetching more than fifteen or twenty cents. 



The Muskrat is a very prolific animal. It brings forth from five to 

 nine young at a birth, and is said to raise three litters in a season. 

 The nest is usually placed in a hole in the bank, at some little distance 

 from the water, though it is sometimes built in the hut. Robert 

 Kennicott, in his very valuable paper upon The Quadrupeds of 

 Illinois, says : " Though the young are generally brought forth in 

 burrows, they were often found in the houses in the sloughs, only 

 one female, however, remaining in a house." J Mr. Thomas S. Rob- 

 erts thus describes a litter of young that he found near Minneapolis, 

 Minnesota, May 24th, 1880: " Upon knocking the top off from a 

 Muskrat house on the edge of a slough, nine young Muskrats ap- 

 parently but a day or two old were disclosed. They were hairless 

 and showed not the least sign of their eyes opening. The nest was 

 of dry grass and not more than an inch or two above the level of the 

 water." § 



The noise a Muskrat makes in diving is out of all proportion to its 



* The Trapper's Guide. By S. Newhouse. Published by Oneida Community, Wallingford, 

 Conn., 1867, pp. 147-150. 

 f Fauna Boreali Americana, Vol. I, 1829, p. 118. 



:{: Report of the Commissioner of Patents for the year 1856. Agriculture, 1857, p. 108. 

 § Forest and Stream, Vol. XIV, No. 22, July i, 18S0, pp. 428-429. 



13 



