CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 1. RODENTIA. 



433 



THE MUSK-RAT. 



where more or less an object of pursuit. It is endowed with a strong musky smell, but not 

 very offensive; the flesh is tolerable food. It lives along the banks of ponds and rivers, some- 

 what in the manner of the beaver, building its winter-houses of mud in a conical form, with an 

 entrance under water and a dry chamber above. It is a good swimmer though its feet are not 

 webbed. In summer it digs burrows along the banks of lakes and streams, forming branched 

 canals many yards in extent, and making a nest at the extremity, where the young are produced 

 — three litters in a season, and three to five at a time. It may be observed that their modes of 

 building, burrowing, and living, vary considerably in different localities — a fact no doubt owing 

 fco the varying necessities of their situation. Their food consists of grasses, roots of various kinds, 

 :ender shoots of the bulrush, and reed-mace, acorns, spice-wood, and sometimes, wdien dwelling 

 :iear human cultivation, turnips, parsnips, and carrots ; they also occasionally eat mussels. In 

 winter, when hard pressed, they sometimes devour each other ; when one is wounded the rest set 

 o and eat him. 



This is doubtless a dark streak in their character: for the rest, they are mostly a gentle folk, 



nirsuing their avocations by night, in a manner so quiet that they seldom intrude on the notice 



»f mankind. They are of a sportive humor, and in the mild season, when the lakes and ponds 



.re open, they may be seen — especially if moonlight favors the observation — disporting on the 



urface of the waters, swimming, diving, and circling, with all the frolicsome humor of children. 



Vhile some thus give themselves up to merriment, others are occupied in the graver but not less 



greeable task of finding their food along the banks. It is said that one of them, at such a time 



>ated on a bank, looks exceedingly like a ball of earth. It is noticed, too, that in diving, they 



lake a smart stroke of the tail in the water, which seems to be an imitation of one of the tricks 



f the beaver. They do little damage to man, except in a few cases, when they dig up the borders 



f streams and ditches, yet on account of their fur they are objects of ceaseless persecution. A 



mltitude of devices are brought into requisition for their capture : they are sometimes caught in 



,-aps and sometimes shot with guns; they are dug out and seized by dogs- the Indians spear 



iem in their beds. They are found throughout the Atlantic States in more or less abun- lance, 



ad are distributed northward through the British territories to the latitude 69° north. In the 



■r Northwestern regions large numbers are taken by the Indians, who make the limiting of them 



;part of the business of their lives. Several hundred thousand skins are annually obtained. 



Vol. I. — 55 



