FIBER ZIBETIIICUS. I 89 



in the water. Fortunately, the fish was attached to a hook and line, 

 and the Muskrat was cauofht and killed. 



The above facts, which were published in Forest and Stream of 

 March 27th and April 3d, 1884, fell under the eye of Mr. E W. 

 Nelson, late Signal Observer at St. Michaels, Alaska, and elicited 

 from him the following additional testimony : " The Muskrat is the 

 most abundant mammal to be found in all the marshy parts of Alaska, 

 south of the Arctic circle at least, and during my residence in that 

 country I had frequent opportunity to learn of its fondness for fish. 

 Often when skirting the border of a pool or following the edge of 

 some slucrcrish stream in the eveningr or durinsf the dim lio"ht of the 

 Arctic nights in summer, I frightened the Muskrats from the body of 

 dead fish on the bank at the water's edge. The fish were usually 

 small sluggish species and such as could have been easily caught by 

 the animal itself, although it feeds upon fish not killed by itself. 

 That the Muskrat will feed upon dead water fowl I have also had 

 frequent occasion to notice." '•' 



Mr. Charles F. Carr writes me that in Wolf River, Wisconsin, 

 twelve or fifteen years ago, Muskrats were in the habit of eating fish 

 from a gill net set there by a man named Rich. 



Ferocious Tendencies of the Muskrat. 



Under the above heading Mr. W. H. Ballou, in the American 

 Naturalist for July, 1880, narrates the following very unusual expe- 

 rience : "I was sauntering along a prairie road just out of Boone, 

 Iowa, one night during the past winter. There was no snow on the 

 ground and the moon was just glimmering through the clouds. Of 

 a sudden I was startled by the appearance of some animal from the 

 long grass by the wayside, which dashed up my leg. I knocked 

 it off, picked up a frozen piece of mud and broke its leg. Again it 

 made a rush for me, and another piece of mud sent it rolling over. 



* Forest and Stream, Vol. XXII, No. 15, May 8, 1884, p. 285. 



