122 MUSK-RAT. 



meal at the trapper's expense, taking good care meanwhile not to expose 

 themselves to his vengeance, by keeping a sharp look out for him in every 

 direction. Our friend, however, got the better of these wary thieves by 

 occasionally baiting his traps with meat instead of apples or vegetables, 

 by which means he often caught an owl or a hawk, instead of a Musk- 

 Rat. Although this species, has such a long list of enemies, it is so pro- 

 lific, that like the common rat, (Mus decumanus,) it continues to increase 

 and multiply in many parts of the country, notwithstanding their activity 

 and voracity. 



The Musk-Rat has occasionally been kno-«Ti to leave its haunts along 

 the streams and ponds, and is sometimes found travelling on elevated 

 grounds. We were informed by our friend Mr. Baird, that one was caught 

 in a house near Reading, in Pennsylvania, three-quarters of a mile from 

 the water; and the late Dr. Wright of Troy, once discovered one making 

 its way through the snow, on the top of a hill, near that city. 



The number of young produced at a litter, varies from three to six. 

 Richardson states that they sometimes have seven, which is by no means 

 improbable. They usually have three litters in a season. 



Although the Musk-Rat does not seem to possess any extraordinary 

 instincts by which to avoid or baffle its pursuers, we were witnesses 

 of its sensibility of approaching danger arising from a natural cause, 

 manifested in a way we think deserving of being recorded. It is a 

 w^ell-knovi'n fact, that many species of quadrupeds and birds, are endowed 

 by Nature with the faculty of foreseeing or foreknoT\dng, the changes of 

 the seasons, and have premonitions of the coming storm. The swallow 

 commences its long aerial voyage even in summer, in anticipation of 

 the cold. The sea-birds, become excessively restless, some seek the 

 protection of the land, and others, like the loon, {Colymhus glaciali.i,) 

 make the shores re-echo ■with their hoarse and clamorous screams, pre- 

 vious to excessively cold Aveather ; the swine also, are seen carry- 

 ing straw in their mouths, and enlarging their beds. After an unusual 

 drought, succeeded by a warm Indian-summer, as we were one day 

 passing near a mill-pond, inhabited by some families of Musk-Rats, we 

 observed numbers of them swimming about in every direction, carry- 

 ing mouthfuls of withered grasses, and building their huts higher on 

 the land than any we had seen before. We had scarcely ever ob- 

 served them in this locality in the middle of the day, and then onlj' for a 

 moment as they swam from one side of the pond to the other ; but now 

 they seemed bent on preparing for some approaching event, and the suc- 

 cessive reports of several guns fired by some hunters, only produced a 

 pause in their operations for five or ten minutes. Although the day was 



