194 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



MUSKRAT HOUSE WITH A CORRIDOR 



For five years, at least, a pair of muskrats have used this hollow log as an entrance 

 to their winter home, which is rebuilt each fall on top of the log. A hole in the upper part 

 provides an entrance (see also illustration on opposite page). 



and storing its winter food, or wariness 

 in avoiding the multitude of methods de- 

 signed for its undoing, it is not strange 

 that this animal figured in the tribal 

 ceremonies of various Indian tribes and 

 was exalted above other animals. 



Both of these aquatic fur-bearers be- 

 long to the order of rodents, the beaver 

 being the sole representative in the fam- 

 ily Castoridcc, while the muskrat, once 

 associated as a genus in the same family 

 by Linnaeus and others, has been demoted 

 by later scientists and assigned to the rat 

 and mouse family, the Muridce, consist- 

 ing of more than a thousand species and 

 variants, widely distributed small ani- 

 mals, including many useless and de- 

 structive "varmints." 



THE CINDERELLA AMONG FUR-BEARERS 



To the properly descriptive prefix 

 "musk" was appended the derogatory 

 term "rat," making it a Cinderella among 

 the fur-bearers and an outcast for many 



years in fashionable circles. With the 

 gradual recognition of the high value of 

 its fur, mostly under fictitious trade 

 names, its caste has improved very 

 greatly of late. Without entering into a 

 discussion concerning the structural dif- 

 ferences between the beaver and the 

 muskrat, it is interesting to note their 

 general resemblances in appearance and 

 habits. 



These animals are similar in shape and 

 color, in the double coat of hair, webbed 

 feet, flat, scaly tails, in having peculiar 

 gland secretions and other anatomical 

 resemblances. In habits they are homo- 

 geneous, being aquatic, nocturnal, mon- 

 ogamous, living in houses or burrows 

 within the banks, each constructed and 

 occupied in much the same way, often as 

 harmonious cotenants, while their ex- 

 tensive range is the same in North 

 America. 



There is a marked similarity in the 

 food habits of these animals. Very many 



