468 



HABITS OF THE MUSQUASH. 



bitten through their roots, and carried them away to their subterranean storehouses. The 

 maize they had procured by cutting the stalks near the level of the ground. 



The Ondatra lives mostly in burrows, which it digs in the banks of the river in which it 

 finds its food, but sometimes takes up its abode in a different kind of habitation, according to 

 the locality and the soil. In the stiff clay banks of rivers the Ondatra digs a rather compli- 

 cated series of tunnels, some of them extending to a distance of fifteen or twenty yards, and 

 sloping upwards. There are generally three or four entrances, all of which open under water, 

 and unite in a single chamber, where the Ondatra makes its bed. The couch of the luxurious 

 animal is composed of sedges, water-lily leaves, and similar plants, and is so large as to fill a 

 bushel basket. On marshy ground, and especially if it be supplied by springs, the Ondatra 

 builds little houses that rise about three or four feet above the water, and look something like 

 small haycocks. 



ONDATUA, (Jit MUS 



As the fur of the Ondatra is rather valuable, and the flesh is considered to be nearly as 

 good as that of the wild duck, it is rather persecuted by the human inhabitants of the same 

 land, as well as by the regular fur hunters. If these creatures have taken up their abode in 

 burrows, the hunters capture them by stopping up all the holes which they can reach, and 

 intercepting the animals as they try to escape ; but if the ground be marshy, and they live 

 in houses or " lodges," a different plan is adopted. Being armed with a four-pronged barbed 

 spear, the hunter creeps quietly towards one of the houses, and with the full strength of his 

 arm drives the barbed prongs completely through the frail walls, transfixing one or more of 

 the inhabitants. His companion, who is furnished with an axe, immediately hurls down 

 the remainder of the wall, and secures the unfortunate victims who are held down by the 

 merciless steel. 



The habits of the Ondatra are very curious, and are admirably related by Messrs. Audu- 

 bon and Bachman, in the work to which allusion has already been made : 



" Musk rats are very lively, playful animals when in their proper element, the water ; 

 and many of them may be occasionally seen disporting themselves on a calm night in some 

 mill-pond or deep sequestered pool, crossing and recrossing in every direction, leaving long 

 ripples in the water behind them, while others stand for a few moments on little hurdles or 

 tufts of grass, or on stones or logs, on which they can get a footing above the water, or on the 



