The Zoologist — March, 1870. 204S 



mice must inevitably perish, and their bodies be cast on shore by the 

 waves. Some will 'ask, " Is this in accordance with the laws of 

 Nature, that animals, or rather the increase of them, shall be kept 

 in check by the destruction of thousands at one stroke when in search 

 of food?" Granted it is not; but I must remind such of my readers 

 that, even in such an " out-of-the-world" place as Newfoundland, 

 Nature is not allowed to take her course, for birds of prey are shot 

 down there as in other countries ; and, more than this, the weasel, the 

 legitimate arch-enemy of the mouse, is extensively trapped in its 

 white winter pelage. 



ARVICOHDiE. 



Musk Rat, Fiber zibelhicus [Linn.) — This " beaver in miniature" 

 is exceedingly common in Newfoundland ; some swampy places 

 almost swarm with lliem. It is generally the work of the juvenile 

 trapper to catch iheni, as little ingenuity is required : it is only neces- 

 sary to find out the places on the banks of the ponds and brooks, 

 which are worn bare by their "footing," and place the iron traps 

 there in the most exposed situations, and without the slightest 

 covering. If the trapper cannot suit himself in selections of this kind, 

 as is often the case where the margins are fringed with a thick growth 

 of stunted alder, he may cut two sloutish poles and place one end of 

 each side by side in the mud, allowing the other ends to rest on the 

 bank; on these the traps should be placed just above water-level. 

 This is a very good method of catching them, as the musk rats are 

 sure to run up the sticks, and when in the trap soon tumble off into 

 the water and are drowned. The houses of the musk rats, or " mus- 

 quash," are built of mud and rushes, and are frequently of consider- 

 able magnitude, but appear to be tenanted only during the winter 

 season : those which I had ample opportunities of examining were 

 invariably situated in muddy, swampy ponds, where rushes abounded, 

 and where the ice never appeared so thick as in more exposed situa- 

 tions. The houses were not built, as some writers assert, on the ice, 

 but on the mud at the bottom of the shallow water, and were raised 

 some two feet above the surface; so that, as the winter sets in, the 

 outsides of the houses and the pond become frozen, while the water 

 in the bottom of the houses remains unfrozen, either from the natural 

 warmth of the interior, or by the animals themselves continually 

 breaking it as a means of exit in search of food under the ice. To 

 effect this, passages are left open at the bottom of the houses near the 



