114 MUSK-RAT. 



all, however, unite at a point, some distance from the water, and suf- 

 ficiently high to be secure from inundation, where there is a pretty large 

 excavation. In tliis "central hall" we have seen nests that would fill a 

 bushel basket. They were composed of decaj'ed plants and grasses, prin- 

 cipally sedge, (Carex,) the leaves of the arrow-head, (Sagittaria,) and the 

 pond-lily, (Ni/mpkcBa.) They always contained several dried sticks, some 

 of them more than a foot in length ; these were sometimes arranged along 

 the sides, but more frequently on the top of the nests. From these nests, 

 there are several galleries extending still farther from the shore ; into the 

 latter the animals retreat, when, after having been prevented from re- 

 turning to the water, by stopping the entrances, they are disturbed in 

 their chamfier. Sometimes we have found their suljterranean strong- 

 holds leading into others by transverse galleries. These were never so 

 far beneath the surface, as those of the fox, marmot, or skunk. On pass- 

 ing near the burrows of the JMusk-Rat, there is always sufficient evidence 

 of their existence in the vicinity ; the excrement of the animal, re- 

 sembling that of the Norway rat, being deposited around, and paths that 

 they have made through the rushes and aquatic plants, that grow in thick 

 profusion in the immetliate neighbom-hood, being easily traced ; but it is 

 not so easy to discover the entrances. The latter, are always under the 

 water, and usually where it is deepest near the shore. Wlien the Musk- 

 Rat is about to retire to its hole, it swuns to within a few feet of the 

 shore, and then dives suddenly and enters it. If you are standing on the 

 banlf directly above the mouth of the hole, the rumbling noise imder your 

 feet, if you listen attentively, vnW inform you that it has entered its bur- 

 row. It seldom, however, immediatelj' retreats far into its hole, but has 

 small excavations and resting-places on the dry ground a little beyond the 

 reach of the w.ater. 



There are, occasionally, very dilTereutly constructed nests of the Musk- 

 Rat ; we have seen some of them, in the town of Clinton, Dutchess coun- 

 ty, and along the margins of swamps in the vicinity of Lake Champlain, 

 in the State of New York : and others, in several localities in Canada. 

 A pond supplied chieflj-, if not entirely, by springs, and surrounded by low 

 and marshy ground, is preferred by the Musk-Rats ; they seem to be aware 

 that the spring- water it contains, probably ^vill not be solidly frozen, and 

 there they prepare to pass the winter. Such a place, as you may well 

 imagine, cannot without great ilifficulty be approached, until its boggy 

 and treacherous foundation has been congealed Iiy the hard frosts and the 

 water is frozen over ; before this time, the Musk-Rats collect coarse 

 grasses and mud, with which, together with sticks, twigs, leaves, and any 

 thing in the vicinity that will serve their purpose, they raise their little 



