Quintet 227 



formed that they do not collect supplies for winter use. 

 Winter life must be comparatively easy in the marsh, for the 

 ice seldom gets more than two or three inches thick and 

 then only for a short time. It is therefore easy for the local 

 mammals to get about and feed on the crustaceans, the fresh- 

 water mussels, and other bottom dwellers. But where shal- 

 low ponds freeze to their bottoms the hazards must be 

 greatly increased and the mortality heavy. I have always 

 thought it strange that "marsh rabbit," which is sold freely 

 in some sections of the East, has never been popular as a 

 food in the West. The muskrat's habits are clean, its food 

 better than that eaten by the average chicken, and I cannot 

 see why it should not be as good or better than rabbit— but 

 I have not yet tried it. 



The fur of this animal is soft, light, and strong, and is sold 

 under a number of trade names given it by the furriers. The 

 yield of marshes is so imposing and the number of skins 

 taken so great that the muskrat is the most important of the 

 North American fur mammals. Everywhere in the United 

 States and in many other countries the muskrat is exploited 

 by professional trappers, by farm boys in their spare hours, 

 and by part-time amateurs who find it an easy way of earn- 

 ing a little extra money. Commercial exploitation goes on in 

 the marsh each year. When trapped too closely a location is 

 abandoned because it is no longer profitable. When this hap- 

 pens rehabilitation usually begins at once, and a few years 

 of rest will find the area fairly well populated again. 



I consider the muskrat, the first of this quintet, a creature 

 of peaceful disposition, doing practically no mammal preda- 

 tion, living largely upon aquatic vegetation of little economic 

 value and, except for its occasional piercing of earth dams 

 and irrigating banks, doing very little damage to its neigh- 

 bors. It lives within the marsh boundaries, takes its living 

 from the marsh community, and seldom leaves the area ex- 

 cept to go to one of like characteristics. I suspect that most 



