BANK BUREOWERS. 37 



just mentioned. The desman is one of those cases 

 that occasionally occur in the animal kingdom where 

 an animal belonging to one family resembles very 

 closely in its habits another belonging to another 

 family. 



Like the muskrat, he generally has his dwelling in 

 the bank of a stream in which he disports himself ; 

 it consists of a chamber with numerous passages, all 

 of which open under the surface of the water. The 

 burrows he makes in the banks of streams and ponds 

 are almost exactly like those dug by the muskrat, con- 

 sisting, as they do, of long passages opening at one 

 end under the surface of the water, and the other into 

 a chamber three or four feet above the water level. 

 Its name, desman, is probably from a Swedish word 

 meaning musk. It is not quite as large an animal as 

 our muskrat, but somewhat resembles it in the shape 

 of its body and the character of its fur, which is very 

 close and dense, consisting of a coat of fine hairs next 

 the skin and longer hairs that cover them, making a 

 beautiful waterproof garment, ashy gray beneath and 

 reddish brown, showing a silver luster in certain 

 lights above. 



The desman is hunted for its fur, but, unlike the 

 former animal, it is never eaten. It has a rather 

 peculiarly shaped tail, narrowed at the root, almost 

 cylindrical for some distance, and then flattened from 

 about the middle to the end. Neither the beaver nor 

 the muskrat uses its tail otherwise than as a rudder, 

 but the desman employs his as an oar, by means of 

 which he sculls himself along, and, as might be 



