THE LIFE OF MAMMALS 
The greatest rock gives them but a slight check; they go round it, and 
then resume their march directly without the least division. If they meet 
a peasant they persist in their course, and jump as high as his knees in de- 
fense of their progress. They are so fierce as to lay hold of a stick and suffer 
themselves to be swung about before they quit their hold. If struck they 
turn about and bite, and will make a noise like a dog. Foxes, lynxes, and 
ermines follow them in great numbers, and at length they perish, either 
through want of food, or by destroying one another, or in some great water 
or in the sea. They are the dread of the country, and in former times 
spiritual weapons were exerted against them; the priest exorcised them, 
and had a long form of prayer to arrest the evil.” So wrote Thomas 
Pennant,!"* more than a century ago; and it forms a vivid illustration 
of the way in which rodents would devastate the earth were it not for the 
constant repression exercised by their natural enemies the carnivores. 
Scandinavia suffers most because that peninsula has comparatively 
few flesh-eating animals to police her valleys. Mr. Crotch supplies an 
interesting detail, showing how unfit these little animals are to endure their 
ill-considered journeys: ‘On calm mornings my lake, which is a mile in 
width, was often thickly studded with swimming lemmings, every head 
pointed westward, _. and never did frailer barks tempt a more treacherous 
sea, as the wind swept daily down the valley, and wrecked all who were 
then afloat. It was impossible not to feel pity for these self-haunted fugi- 
tives. A mere cloud passing over the sun affrighted them; the approach 
of horse, cow, dog, or man alike roused their impotent anger, and their 
little bodies were convulsively pressed against the never failing stone of 
vantage whilst they uttered cries of rage.” 
The American muskrat is only a big vole, adapted to a 
thoroughly aquatic career, but is one of the most celebrated 
and noteworthy of our quadrupeds; it is to be met 
with throughout the whole continent, to which it is 
peculiar, but not south of Arizona. That of Newfoundland 
and the muskrat of the Dismal Swamp, in Virginia, are called 
distinct species by the specialists. 
Although so widely distributed and abundant, the muskrat 
is not often seen, as it is mainly nocturnal in its habits, and 
during the day remains in its burrow or house especially when 
it fears it will be observed. Its home either is built of sticks, 
436 
Muskrat. 
