558 
the beginning of the house is often made in the form of a raft of 
edible roots. This raft is added to till its weight sinks it to the 
bottom. After the solid stack is completed a small cavity is hol- 
lowed out in the middle, a little above the water-line, and a run- 
way—sometimes more than one—leading from it is dug down to and 
under the water. A number of individuals occupy the same house. 
The great bulk of the food of the muskrat is vegetable matter— 
chiefly roots of aquatic and riparian plants. When corn, grain, 
vegetables, or apples are convenient, the muskrat helps itself to 
them, and may go a few rods from the water to visit a field or store- 
house containing them. At times muskrats feed extensively on 
fresh-water mussels*. Observations indicate that the more delicate 
species are taken out on the bank and opened at once with the 
teeth, while the heavier and stouter species are not opened till they 
are weakened by lying there. That muskrats eat dead or living fish 
at times is vouched for by a number of good observers. 
From three or four to at least as many as nine young are pro- 
duced in a litter. The northern trappers believe that the female 
produces two broods the first year and three for several years after. 
The young are hairless and quite helpless when born. 
Considerable damage is done by muskrats in fields of corn and 
grain, though it is seldom serious in any particular locality. _Wher- 
ever a corn field touches the banks of a stream or ditch, muskrat 
trails running from the water into the edge of the crop are common. 
Growing corn is usually cleared off systematically over a small 
area and carried to the water and eaten. Comparatively little is 
wasted, stalk and all being eaten. Grain fields in proximity to 
water are also entered and the grain is cut down, the heads being 
either eaten on the spot or carried to the edge of the field or into the 
water. Grain is also carried off after it is harvested and in the 
shock. Muskrats also damage root-crops when these are grown 
near their resorts. 
* IT am indebted to Mr. James Zetek, of the State Laboratory, for the identi- 
fication of the following species which had been opened by muskrats on a sand-bar 
of the Sangamon River, near White Heath. The pile of empty shells included 7 
shells of Symphynota, 41 of Quadrula undulata, 4 of Q. pustulosa and 1 of Q. 
coccinea, 7 of Lampsilis luteolus and 1 of L. ventricosus, 3 of Tritogonia tuberculata, 
2 
3 of Alasmodonta complanata, and 1 of Anodonta grandis. 
poedil, Wi, (Si. isin Cerner, Wolk, WW., jojo. 72s» 
