559 
Great injury to dams, or other walls of earth used for confining 
water, may result from the burrowing of muskrats, since their 
excavations are the beginnings of breaks that may become exten- 
sive and entail enormous loss. In this part of the state the loss is 
chiefly restricted to the banks and immediate vicinity of water- 
courses. The burrows run back for a considerable distance, and, 
being near the surface of the ground, cause the banks to cave in and 
obstruct the stream. Horses and cattle also break through into 
the burrows, making holes that are both unsightly and dangerous. 
In spite of the fact that muskrats are both prolific and locally 
abundant, they can hardly be regarded as a serious pest. They are 
easily trapped, and it is seldom that they occasion more loss in a 
locality than their hides are worth. Traps may be set in the en- 
trance of their burrows or where their runways enter the water; or 
they may be set near their feeding grounds and baited with a bit of 
parsnip, carrot, or sweet apple. The bait should be supported over 
the trap on a stick. If possible the trap should be so placed that 
the animal may get into deep water when captured; otherwise it is 
very apt to amputate the limb that is caught and escape. 
The skins of muskrats form an important item of the fur trade. 
From three to four million skins are used yearly, and three fourths 
of these are from the United States. Their price has varied con- 
siderably. At one time they sold for as much as fifty cents apiece, 
and then were worth more than mink skins. 
COOPER’S LEMMING; COOPER’S LEMMING-VOLE. 
Synaptomys coopert Baird. 
(ONT, valinn, Wilekaahaae, IID //, 70: Sisrsh,)) 
The range of this species is from eastern Massachusetts to Minne- 
sota, and south to North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, and Iowa. 
In color and form this lemming resembles a meadow-mouse, but 
it is easily recognized at once by the grooves along the front of the 
broad incisors. It is really a form connecting the meadow-mice, 
or voles, and the true lemmings; the name ‘‘lemming-vole”’ is there- 
fore the most appropriate one, though too awkward for common use. 
Everywhere within its range this species seems to be the rarest 
of the small mammals—or, at least, the one most seldom trapped. 
The only two specimens in our collection were found together in the 
