MUSQUASH, OR MUSK RAT OR ONDATRA. 



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ivhich 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. 



MUSQUASH, OR MUSK RAT, OR ONDATRA. -Fiber Ztbethlcus. 



The ONDATRA, MUSQUASH, or MUSK RAT, is a native of Northern America, where it is 

 found in various places above the twentieth degree of north latitude. 



The color 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 gray ; 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 coloring 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 

 mussels 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 



