FUR FACTS 59 



to several diflFerent people, it is possible to stock it with muskrat and 

 co-operate in raising them and dividing the proceeds when the pelts 

 are taken, and after they are sold. 



If you have a piece of swampy land, do not let it go to waste, and 

 do not be too anxious to have it drained, for the reason that it may 

 be more valuable for the raising of muskrat than for any other pur- 

 pose for which you could adapt it. Muskrat will thrive and breed 

 tremendously if given protection. 



The muskrat has several natural enemies, such as the fox, mink, 

 wolf, hawks and owls, but all of these together including the trapper 

 do not greatly affect them, if any care is taken of them. 



Muskrats multiply very rapidly, more so than most fur bearing 

 animals. 



HABITS 



The muskrat does most of its work at night, but they are also 

 much more active by day than many persons suppose. Where 

 seldom disturbed, they often work in the bright sun light, especially 

 at the season when they are building their winter houses. 



Muskrat houses are composed of grasses, rushes, roots and stems 

 of aquatic plants. The structure rests on the bottom of a shallow 

 pond, and is built mainly of the kind of plants on which the animals 

 feed. These are heaped up without orderly arrangement until the 

 domelike top rises to two or three feet above the water. The mud 

 on the outside and in the walls of muskrat houses seems to be col- 

 lected accidently with the roots. Within the part of the structure 

 above the water a chamber is excavated, from which two or three 

 passages lead downward through the mass into the water, reaching 

 it at points well below the frost line. Where the water is shallow, 

 the animals excavate deeper channels from the house to various 

 parts of the pond or lake. 



The muskrat houses are mostly for winter shelter and food and 

 are seldom used as receptacles for the young. Occasionally, when 

 they are driven from their houses or when excluded from under- 

 ground burrows by barriers of ice or frozen ground, more than one 

 family may occupy a single house temporarily. 



When the banks of streams or ponds are high enough for the 

 purpose, muskrats often burrow into them. Entrances to the tun- 

 nels are almost always under water, and the approach to them is, if 

 possible, by channels of sufficient depth to prevent ice from closing 

 the passage. The tunnels extend upward into the bank above the 



