JUMPING-MICE — VOLES AND MUSQUASH 323 



north from Hudson Bay to Alaska, and southwards to Florida, Mexico, and 

 California. But the beaver is being steadily exterminated, and is now only fairly 

 numerous in the country along the watershed between the Hudson Bay rivers and 

 the St. Lawrence, in the upper courses of the Frazer and the Peace Rivers, and in 

 the Canadian portion of the Rocky Mountains. 



Another widely distributed group of North American rodents are 

 the jumping-mice, which have one Asiatic representative, and in the 

 Western Hemisphere range through British North America from the Atlantic to the 

 Pacific, and from Hudson Bay and the Great Slave Lake in the north to Arizona 

 and Mexico in the south, although in the last-named districts apparently confined 

 to the mountains. The typical representative of the group is the Hudson Bay 

 jumping-mouse (Zapus hudsonianus), which in its summer dress is brown above, 

 yellow on the flanks, and white beneath. In appearance it is like a long-legged 

 mouse, with a long tufted tail. When in active movement it leaps along so quickly 

 that its hind-legs seem scarcely to touch the ground, and if suddenly disturbed 

 will spring a length of from 8 to 10 feet, although the length of its bounds soon 

 decreases to 4 feet or less. This jumping-mouse is by no means a strictly nocturnal 

 animal, being generally seen abroad early in the evening, and occasionally even 

 during the day. In this respect, as well as in its preference for damp wooded 

 situations, it differs from most other jumping-mice. 



Voles and Voles of the European genera Microtus and Evotomys abound 



Musquash. [ n North America, a well-known northern form being the meadow- 

 vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus), a species, with several local races, worthy of 

 notice on account of its habit of forsaking its burrow in winter to build a nest on 

 the ground. An essentially American type is the musk-rat, or musquash (Fiber 

 zibethicus), another member of the vole group, ranging across the continent from 

 the Barren Grounds in the extreme north to as far south as the Rio Grande. 

 This rodent, whose body measures nearly a foot in length, is the largest of the 

 tribe, and: has a soft velvety coat of a dark brown colour, shading to grey on the 

 muzzle and under surface, with a number of long stiff hairs on the back and sides. 

 As in the typical voles, which it resembles in the structure of its teeth and skull, 

 the body is similar to that of a rat, but the head is broad with comparatively 

 small eyes, the ears are hardly seen among the growth of hair, and the muzzle is 

 entirely covered with hair save for a small spot round the nostrils. The legs of 

 the musquash are short, the first toe of the fore-foot being rudimentary, and the 

 toes being connected by a membrane which is not quite perfect. The soles are 

 quite bare, and the scaly tail, which is much compressed at the sides, has ridges 

 of hairs on the upper and lower edges, and only a few sparse hairs elsewhere. 

 Like the beaver, the musquash has a habit of striking the surface of the water 

 with its tail ; it is an excellent diver, and consumes a considerable number of fishes 

 and mussels, although its chief nutriment consists of the roots of grasses and water- 

 plants. These industrious little rodents make for themselves dwelling-places from 

 roots and bog-grasses, mixed with mud and sticks, sometimes heaped carelessly 

 together, but at others assuming the form of flattened mounds. Where the water 

 is deep these domiciles are sometimes placed on dry ground, but when possible 

 they are built in the water. Sometimes they are of great size, and are generally 



