96 MR. J. K. LORD ON TWO NEW MAMMALS. [Mar. 24, 



then cleared, wliicli constitutes his dining-, drawing-, and bed-rooms ; 

 leading to the entrance of his mansion are a large number of open 

 cuttings, running in all directions, cut or dug in the mud at the bot- 

 tom of the water. When foraging about, as he usually does about 

 twilio-ht, if alarmed, he dives at once into one of these cuttings, and, 

 rushing rapidly through it, stirs up the mud, and so fouling the 

 water, completely and effectually conceals himself. 



The other Musk Rat, which I propose to make a new species, and 

 to call Fiber osoyoosensis, having obtained it at a large lake (Lake 

 Osoyoos), situated between the Cascades and Rocky Mountauis, and 

 through which the boundary -line (the 49th parallel of latitude) runs, 

 differs in size, in colour, in locahty, but particularly in habits, from 



the preceding. j , , j • 



This fellow chooses as his haunt a clear pond or lake, and m water 

 from 3 to 4 feet deep constructs a house of buUrushes, in form 

 conical, built vip from the bottom— how, I am at a loss to imagine, — 

 the roof cleverly arched over into a domed shape, and raised about 

 a foot above the water. Up in this dome, skilfully constructed, is 

 his suite of apartments, the entrance to which is far below the sur- 

 face of the water. His habits very nearly approximate those of the 

 Beaver : he swims about boldly in the day-time, but dives rapidly 

 on the approach of danger. If a dead or badly wounded duck be 

 left on the pool, it is at once seized on, towed into the house, and 



devoured. . i -.r i -n 



I am quite satisfied, from careful observation, that the Musk Rat 

 is a carnivorous beast whenever he has a chance ; and the straight, 

 sharp-cutting, strong incisor teeth are well adapted for the indul- 

 gence of such cannibal propensities. 



If there were no rushes growing where the mud-rover lived, it 

 mio-ht be assumed that he dug a hole into the bank from lack of 

 material to build a house ; but I have often seen the rushes growing 

 abundantly where he has chosen his mud hut, offering every facihty 

 for architectural pursuits, had he so willed. On the other hand, had 

 the rush-builder been precluded from finding a mud-bank in which 

 to construct his mansion, it might have been supposed that he had 

 resorted to making a hut with rushes on that account. 



This Lagomys, which I propose making a new species, and calling, 

 from its being so much less than any other, Lagomys minimus, lives 

 on the summit of the Cascade Mountains, at an altitude above the 

 sea-level of about 7000 feet. He chooses as his residence loose piles 

 of rocks and stones. He is shy and wary, and on the slightest noise 

 takes a header into a crevice. When everything is again still and 

 quiet, he cautiously peeps out, and, growing bold in the silence, climbs 

 up on the top of a stone, and, sitting on his hind legs like a begging 

 dog, gives a sharp shrill cry ; and so curiously deceptive is it that I 

 constantly imagined the sound was far distant when it has been close 

 to my feet. It was in October, when I was on Ptarmigan Hill, a 

 high mountain in the Cascade range ; the snow was just beginning to 

 fall ; and all these httle fellows were then busily employed in making 

 large nests, in the crevices between the stones, of dry grass and leaves, 



