MUSQUASH, OR MUSK RAT, OR ONDATRA.—Fiber Zibethicus. 
which they traverse their domains, and examine everything that seems to be novel. If 
a tuft of grass is thrown to them, they pick it up in their fore-paws, shake it violently, 
in order to get rid of the earth that clings to the roots, and then, carrying it to the 
water-side, wash it with a rapid dexterity that might be envied by a professional 
laundress. 
While swimming it looks very like a magnified water vole, and is remarkably quick 
and agile in its movements; but its gait on land is clumsy and awkward. It seems to be 
equally at home in salt and fresh water, inhabiting the banks of rivers or the shores of 
the sea creeks, according to the locality in which it is found, and living in burrows which 
it excavates along the banks. It is said to be a tolerably powerful animal, and to make 
no despicable resistance to the dogs which are employed in its chase. It is, however, 
naturally of a gentle disposition, and can be rendered very tame by those who bestow 
proper attention upon it. 
The OnpaTrA, Musquasn, or Musk Rat, is a native of Northern America, where it is 
found in various places above the twentieth degree of north latitude. 
The colour of this animal is a dark brown on the upper portions of its body, tinged 
with a reddish hue upon its neck, ribs, and legs, the abdomen being ashy grey ; the tail is 
of the same dark hue as the body. In total length it rather exceeds two feet, of which 
measurement the tail occupies about ten inches. The incisor teeth are bright yellow, and 
the nails are white. The whole colouring of the animal is so wonderfully like the hue of 
the muddy banks on which it resides, that a practised naturalist has often mistaken the 
Ondatras for mere lumps of mud until they began to move, and so dispelled the illusion. 
The hinder feet of the Ondatra are well webbed, and their imprint on the soft mud is 
very like that of a common duck. 
The food of the Ondatra in a wild state appears to be almost wholly of a vegetable 
nature ; although, when confined in a cage, one of these animals has been seen to eat 
muscles and oysters, cutting open the softest shells, and extracting the inmates, and 
waiting for the hard-shelled specimens until they either opened of their own accord or 
died. Although the Ondatra is a clumsy walker, it will sometimes travel to some 
distance from the water-side, and has been noticed on a spot nearly three-quarters of a 
mile from any water. These animals have also been detected in ravaging a garden, which 
they had plundered of turnips, parsnips, carrots, maize, and other vegetables. The 
mischievous creatures had burrowed beneath them, bitten through their roots, and carried 
