1912 AND FISHERIES COMMISSION. 207 



channels leading to the burrows, and they do not hibernate during- the 

 winter. 



There would appear to be considerable diversity of opinion in regard 

 to the breeding habits of the muskrat, but the bulk of evidence would 

 tend to show that normally there are three or more litters in the course 

 of a 3'ear of an average of from three to eight, and that the 3"oung of the 

 first litter of the year, which arTive early in the spring, themselves breed 

 in the fall of the same year, for the creature must be unusually prolific 

 to account for the wonderful replenishment of marshes during the close 

 Beason which have been depleted by vigorous trapping. 



The muskrat is principally herbivorous, devouring the roots, steins, 

 leaves and fruit of aquatic plants and being partial to nearly all garden 

 vegetables. It will, however, on occasions take animal food, and in some 

 localities during the winter months feeds largely on mussels and such 

 slow-moving fish as the carp, which bury themiselves in the mud at this 

 season of the yeair. Cases, also, have occurred where the.y have been 

 known to attack trapped or wounded members of their own kind and 

 are said, when hard pressed for food, to devour the weaker members of 

 their own community. 



In the raw state the fur of the muskrat is dense and sioft, not unlike 

 that of the beaver though the pelage is shorter and less close and somewhat 

 inferior in durability. The colour varies with tlie season and locality 

 and the fur is in primest condition in the early spring. The earliest 

 demand for muskrat skins was for the manufacture of so-called beaver 

 hats, and when replaced by silk in the manufacture of hats, they next 

 became popular as imitation of sealskin. The modem fur dresser and 

 dyer hias, however, found means of imitating nearly all the most costly 

 furs with that of this animal and a continuous and great demand for 

 these pelts on this account alone has been created. The London market 

 affords a good idea of the growth of this demand. From 1763 to 1800 

 the total number of skins imported and sold in that market was 2,831,- 

 453, an average of less than 75,000 yearly. From 1851 to 1890 inclusive 

 the importations were approximately 99,893,591, or a yearly average of 

 about 2,500,000, while the average sales of recent years have been over 

 4,000,000 per annum. Prices are largely bajsed on returns from the Lon- 

 don auctions, altliough the number of pelts retained for home use is in- 

 creasing rapidly, and it is unquestionable that the prices show a ten- 

 dency to rise steadily. In Baltimore, for instance, the buyers paid 35 

 cents apiece in 1909 for brown skins ungraded, whereas in 1910 they 

 were paying 05 cents for the same class skin, while in Toronto in the 

 spring of 1909 a prominent firm of furriers was paying 45 cents a skin 

 and in the the spring of 1910, 75 to 80 cents a skin. 



The muskrat is peculiarly defenceless in the wintertime when it is 

 congregated in its burrows and houses, and although the law explicitly 

 forbids the breaking into houses, it is unfortunately the case that this 

 regulation is all too frequently disregarded in a great many portions 



