108 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



generally contains several individuals. These retreats or 

 cabins are round, and covered with a concave top, about a 

 foot in thickness; they are made of grass, rushes, earth, fyc, 

 and are so compact and hardened, as to be impenetrable by 

 rain or by the severity of cold, even when the surface of the 

 ground is covered with snow. 



They do not amass magazines of provisions, like some 

 other social animals, but they leave numerous and long 

 avenues in the vicinity of their cabins, for the ease of col- 

 lecting roots and other vegetable matter as food, and also 

 for access to the water, where they probably also prey 

 partially on fish. Like other digging animals, they are 

 sometimes exposed to a very hard fate during the severity 

 of winter, and are known occasionally to be driven to 

 devour each other when incapable of procuring their natural 

 food. 



They produce five or six young at a time, once in the year. 

 The period of gestation is not known, but the young are 

 generally found tolerably strong at the commencement of 

 autumn. 



The voice of the Ondatra is not unlike a sort of groaning ; 

 the hunters sometimes draw them from their retreat, and 

 take them by imitating this voice. 



Though decidedly aquatic in its habits, the toes not 

 being so completely palmated as those of the Beaver, they 

 do not swim so well or so fast, or continue in the water so 

 long as that animal ; they are more frequently obliged to 

 visit the shore ; here indeed they cannot run fast, and walk 

 still more awkwardly. 



The Ondatra is not a fierce species ; if taken early, it may 

 be easily tamed, and fed on the acorus, calamus nymphcea, 

 and the roots of aquatic plants generally. 



Their pelt or down is made use of in the manufacture of 

 hats ; formerly the fur also was in use. but as it cannot be 

 completely divested of its unpleasant scent, it has been 



