1 8a STRANGE DWELLINGS. 



hovvever, seldom pass a nest without seeing it, and destroying 

 the inmate. Being a nocturnal animal, the Bettong is sure to 

 be at home and asleep during the daytime, so that when a 

 native passes a nest he always dashes his tomahawk into its 

 midst, thus killing or stunning the sleeping inmates. 



Our second and last example of the Building Mammalia is 

 the Musquash, or Ondatra of North America {Fiber Zibethicus\ 

 sometimes called the Musk Rat. 



This animal might have been placed among the burrowers, 

 for it is quite as good an excavator as many which have been 

 described under that title, but as it builds as well as burrows, 

 it has been reserved for its present position in the work. 



Essentially a bank-haunting animal, it is never to be seen at 

 any great distance from water, and like the beaver, to which it 

 is closely allied, it is usually to be found either in the river 

 itself or on its edge, where its brown, wet fur harmonizes so 

 well with the brown, wet mud, that the creature can scarcely be 

 distinguished from the surrounding soil. It is seen to the best 

 advantage in the water, where it swims and dives with consum 

 mate ease, aided greatly by the webs which connect the hinder 

 toes. 



The Musquash drives a large series of tunnels into the bank, 

 excavated in various directions, and having several entrances, 

 all of which open under the surface of the water. The tunnels 

 are of considerable length, some being as much as fifty or sixty 

 feet in length, and they all slope slightly upwards, uniting in a 

 single chamber in which is the couch of the inhabitants. If the 

 animal happens to live upon a marshy and uniformly wet soil, 

 it becomes a builder, and erects houses so large that they look 

 like small haycocks. Sometimes these houses are from three 

 to four feet in height. 



The natives take advantage of the habits of the animal, and 

 kill it while it lies on its couch, much after the same manner as 

 is used by the natives of Australia when they pass the house of 

 the Bettong. Taking in his hand a large four-barbed spear^ 

 shaped something like the well-known 'grains' with which 



