G6 



MUSEUM OF ANIMATED NATURE. 



[Rats. 



bark and place themselves round the heap with 

 their heads joined over it, and their backs to the 

 water, their tails pendent in the stream serving the 

 purpose of rudders." (Fig. 266.) The truth of this 

 fact he says was confirmed by the testimony of two 

 credible witnesses, the clergyman of Briamslcek, 

 and Madame Benedictson, of' Stickesholm. He 

 further states that they make a drainage from their 

 burrow, leading into a deep hole, intended for the 

 reception of the water. 



268.— The Watek-Rat 

 (Arvicola amphibia). Rat d'eau, Buff. The water- 

 rat is by many regarded as a variety of that de- 

 structive animal the common rat, which, as is well 

 known, often takes up its quarters in drains and 

 ditches, and the banks of canals, especially near 

 houses, farms, stables, &c, making deep burrows 

 in which to rear its young. From this pest the 

 water-rat is totally distinct. It frequents the borders 

 of large ponds, reservoirs, streams, and rivers, dwell- 

 ing in burrows of considerable extent to which 

 there are generally two or more outlets. The main 

 outlet is in most instances close to the water's edge, 

 so that during floods it is not. unfrequently below 

 the surface, but the gallery, sloping upwards as it 

 proceeds in the bank, terminates in a chamber 

 which the water does not reach. Here, in a snug 

 bed of dried grass and vegetable fibres, the female 

 rears her young. Nocturnal or crepuscular iu its 

 habits, it is chiefly as the dusk of evening steals on 

 that the water-rat emerges from its retreat, but it 

 seldom ventures far from the margin of the pond 

 or river, into which when alarmed it immediately^ 

 plunges, and swims under the cover of overhanging 

 roots and herbage to its burrow. Though not web- 

 footed, it is at home in the water, and dives with 

 great ease. There are few persons who have not 

 noticed its waymarks on the surface of stagnant 

 ponds, or ditches mantled over with a thick crop 

 of chickweed. These tracts are made during the 

 night, the season in which it wanders in search of 

 food or its fellows. The roots of aquatic plants, 

 especially the typha, the stems of equisetum, buds 

 and bark, &c, constitute the diet of this species : 

 it has been affirmed that it feeds also upon insects, 

 small fishes, frogs, &c, but for this assertion there 

 is not the slightest foundation. It would appear 

 that the water-rat hybernates during some portion 

 of the winter, and also lays up a store of food. Mr. 

 White says, " As a neighbour was lately ploughing 

 in a dry chalky field, far removed from any water, 

 he turned out a water-rat that was curiously laid up 

 in an hybernaculum artificially formed of grass and 

 leaves. At one end of the burrow lay above a 

 gallon of potatoes regularly stowed, on which it 

 was to have supported itself for the winter." It 

 must be acknowledged that there are some points 

 in the history of this species to be cleared up. In 

 size this animal equals the common brown rat, but 

 the head is thicker and more obtuse, the muzzle 

 being blunt and short; the ears are scarcely appa- 

 rent, being buried in the fur ; the eyes are small 

 and black; the tail is little more than half the 

 length of the body, and thinly covered with short 

 hairs. The fur is thick and close ; its colour on the 

 upper parts is dark reddish brown, mixed with grey ; 

 on the under surface brownish white : a black 

 variety sometimes occurs. The species is spread 

 over most parts of Europe. 



269, 270. — The Beaveb 

 < Castor Fiber). The Beaver is not exclusively con- 

 fined to the northern portions of the American 

 continent. Herman (see ' Journey round the Earth,' 

 &c.) informs us that it " abounds in the Obi, and is 

 taken, not for the sake of its fur, but for its musk, 

 which bears a very high price." It is common 

 along the Euphrates, and a skin sent home by Col. 

 Chesney is in the possession of the Zool. Soc. 

 Lond. The beaver occurs also along some of the 

 larger rivers of Europe, as the Rhone, the Danube, 

 the Weser, and the Nuthe, near its confluence with 

 the Elbe. It was formerly an inhabitant of our 

 own island, and Giraldus Cambrensis gives us a 

 short account of their manners in Wales ; but in his 

 time (1188) they were only found in the river Teify. 

 By the laws of Hoel-dda, the price of a beaver's 

 skin was fixed at 120 pence, a great sum in those 

 days Whether the European, Asiatic, and Ame- 

 rican beavers are specifically identical or not, yet 

 remains to be determined. Certain it is that the 

 European beaver, as proved by the little colony in 

 the Nuthe, displays the same manners and building 

 propensities as its Transatlantic brethren ; and per 

 contra, the thirty scattered beavers near the settle- 

 ments in America are solitary animals, dwelling m 

 burrows like the scattered few along the Rhone, 

 though it must be observed that one from the latter 

 river in captivity exhibited as marked a construc- 

 tive disposition as any American beaver under the 

 same restrictions. The mode of building as con- 

 ducted by the beaver of America is described by 

 Hearne with great clearness and the absence of the 



ordinary exaggeration. The situation chosen is 

 various : where the beavers are numerous, they 

 tenant lakes, rivers, and creeks, especially the two 

 latter, for the sake of the current, of which they 

 avail themselves in the transportation of the ma- 

 terials. They also choose such parts as have a 

 depth of water beyond the freezing-power to con- 

 geal at the bottom. In small rivers or creeks in 

 which the water is liable to be drained off when 

 the back-supplies are dried up by the frost, they 

 are led by instinct to make a dam quite across 

 the river, at a convenient distance from their houses, 

 thus artificially procuring a deep body of water in 

 which to build. The dam varies in shape : where the 

 current is gentle, it is carried out straight ; but where 

 rapid it is bowed, presenting a convexity to the 

 current. The materials used are drift-wood, green 

 willows, birch, and poplars, if they can be got, and 

 also mud and stones ; these are intermixed without 

 order, the only aim being to carry out the work 

 with a regular sweep, and to make the whole of 

 equal strength. Old dams by frequent repairing 

 become a solid bank, capable of resisting a great 

 force of water and ice, and as the willows, poplars, 

 and birches take root and shoot up, they form by 

 degrees a sort of thick hedge-row, often of consider- 

 able height. Of the same materials the houses 

 themselves are built, and in size proportionate to 

 the number of their respective inhabitants, which 

 seldom exceeds four old and six or eight young 

 ones. The houses, however, are ruder in structure 

 than the dam ; the only aim being to have a dry 

 place to lie upon, and perhaps feed in. When the 

 houses are large, it often happens that, they are di- 

 vided by partitions into two or three or even more 

 compartments, which have, in general, no commu- 

 nication, except by water; such may be called 

 double or treble houses, rather than houses divided. 

 Each compartment is inhabited by its own pos- 

 sessors, who know their own door, and have no con- 

 nexion with their neighbours, more than a friendly 

 intercourse, and joining with them in the necessary 

 labour of building. So far are the beavers from 

 driving stakes, as some have said, into the ground 

 when building, that they lay most of the wood 

 crosswise, and nearly horizontal, without any order 

 than that of leaving a cavity in the middle ; and 

 when any unnecessary branches project inward, 

 they cut them off with their chisel-like teeth, and 

 throw them in among the rest to prevent the mud 

 from falling in. With this wood is mixed mud 

 and stones, and the whole compacted together. 

 The bank affords them the mud, or the bottom of 

 the creek, and they carry it, as well as the stones, 

 under their throat by the aid of their fore-paws ; 

 the wood they drag along with their teeth. They 

 always work in the night, and have been known 

 during the course of a single night to have accu- 

 mulated as much mud as amounted to some thou- 

 sands of their little handfuls. Every fall they cover 

 the outside of their houses with fresh mud, and as 

 late in the autumn as possible, even when the frost 

 has set in, as by this means it soon becomes frozen 

 as hard as stone, and prevents their most, formid- 

 able enemy, the wolverene or glutton, from dis- 

 turbing them during the winter. In laying on this 

 coat of mud they do not use their broad flat tails, 

 as has been asserted, a mistake which has arisen 

 from their habit of giving a flap with the tail, when 

 plunging from the outside of the house into the 

 water, and when they are startled, as well as at 

 other times. The houses when complete have a 

 dome-like figure, with walls several feet thick, and 

 emerging from four to six feet above the water. 

 The only entrance is deep under water, below a 

 projection called the " angle" by the hunters, and 

 beyond the reach of the frost :*near this, also under 

 water, is laid up their winter store, a mass of 

 branches of willows and other trees, on the bark of 

 which they feed. These they stack up, sinking 

 each layer by means of mud and stones, and often 

 accumulate more than a cartload of materials. Be- 

 sides these winter-houses, in which they are shut 

 up during the severities of the season, they have 

 always a number of holes in the banks which serve 

 them as places of retreat when any injury is offered 

 to their houses, and in these they are generally taken. 

 The entrance to these holes is deep below the. 

 water, which fills a great part of the vault itself. 

 When the hunter forces the houses of the beaver 

 in winter (the hunting season), the animals swim 

 beneath the ice to these retreats, the entrances of 

 which are discovered by striking the ice along 

 the banks with an iron ice-chisel, the sound indi- 

 cating to practised ears the exact spot : they cut a 

 hole in the house and surprise their booty. During 

 the summer the beavers roam about at pleasure, 

 and it is during this season that they fell the wood 

 necessary for repairing their houses and dams, or 

 for building others, commencing the latter about 

 the end of August. Such is the strength and sharp- 

 ness of their teeth that they will lop off a branch 

 as thick as a walking-stick at a single effort, and 



as cleanly as if cut with a pruning knife. Large 

 stems they gnaw all round, taking care that their 

 fall shall be towards or into the water, They 

 rapidly fell a tree, the shaft of which is as thick or 

 thicker than a man's thigh, or from six to ten 

 inches in diameter; and places of more than three 

 acres in front of the river and one in depth have 

 been seen with the timber all felled by these ani- 

 mals, though many of the trees were as thick as a 

 man's body. The beaver does not attain its full 

 growth before three years, but it breeds before that 

 time. It produces from two to six at a birth. The 

 flesh of this animal is esteemed by the Canadian 

 hunters, and by the natives, as a great delicacy, and 

 we need not say how valuable its fur is as an article 

 of commerce. It is from certain gandular sacs in 

 the beaver that the substance called castor, or cas- 

 toreum, used in medicine, is obtained, and which 

 (procured from the European variety) was well 

 known to the ancients. 



In captivity the beaver soon becomes familiar 

 and sociable, and, if permitted, will even in a room 

 exercise itself in attempts to build, using brushes, 

 baskets, boots, sticks, and in short anything it can 

 get hold of for the purpose. 



The fine fur of the beaver varies from glossy 

 brown to black ; the tail, or caudle paddle, used as a 

 rudder in diving or in ascending, is flat, scaled, and 

 oarlike. The length of the head and body of a 

 full-grown animal is about forty inches ; of the 

 caudle paddle, one foot. The feet are all five-toed ; 

 those of the hind-feet are united by a broad pal- 

 mated expansion ; the nails are strong, and that of 

 the second toe of the hind-feet consists of two por- 

 tions. On land the gait of the beaver is awkward 

 and shuffling, owing in part to the outward tour- 

 nure of the hind-feet, which fits them for aquatic 

 progression, and in part to the thick and ciumsy 

 configuration of the body. The genus Castor is 

 somewhat isolated, and may be regarded as the type 

 of a subfamily. 



271. — The Musquash 



(Ondatra Zibethica). Fiber Zibethieus, Sabine; 

 Musk-rat, Godman ; Ondathra of the Hurons ; Mus- 

 quash, Watsuss, or Wachusk, and also Peesquaw- 

 Tupeyew (' the animal that sits on the ice in a round 

 form ') of the Cree Indians. The dentition of this 

 animal (Fig. 271*) presents a close affinity to that of 



the water-rat and other species of Arvicola, as in 



g 3 



Fig. 267. Molars, — -~. 



The musquash is a native of North America, and 

 in its general form it resembles the common water- 

 rat, size excepted. In the length of the head and 

 body it measures about fourteen inches, that of the 

 tail being eight or nine. The fur, which is much 

 like that of the beaver, is dark umber brown pass- 

 ing into brownish yellow on the under parts : pied 

 and even white varieties are sometimes seen. The 

 hind feet are not webbed ; the tail is compressed 

 laterally, broadest in the middle and covered with 

 a thin sleek coat of short hairs ; longer hairs run 

 along the acute margins. 



The range of this animal is from lat. 30° as high 

 north as 69°. Small grassy lakes, or swamps, or the 

 grassy borders of slow streams, are its favourite 

 haunts. Vegetable matters are its principal food, 

 as roots, tender shoots, the leaves of various carices, 

 &c. ; to which it adds fresh-water muscles (Unio). 

 The musquash swims and dives well, plunging into 

 the water on the least alarm, and diving instanta- 

 neously on perceiving the flash of a gun. This ani- 

 mal builds winter habitations, but far less solid 

 and durable than those of the beaver. These habi- 

 tations are thus described by Dr. Richardson : — " In 

 the autumn, before the shallow lakes and swamps 

 freeze over, the musquash builds its house of mud, 

 giving it a conical form, and a sufficient base to raise 

 the chamber above the water. The chosen spot is 

 generally amongst long grass, which is incorporated 

 with the walls of the house from the mud being de- 

 posited amongst it, but the animal does not appear 

 to make any kind of composition or mortar by tem- 

 pering the mud and grass together. There is, how- 

 ever, a dry bed of grass deposited in the chamber. 

 The entrance is under water. When ice forms over 

 the surface of the swamp, the musquash makes 

 breathing-holes through it, and protects them from 

 the host by a covering of mud. In severe winters, 

 however, these holes freeze up in spite of their co- 

 verings, and many of the animals die. It is to be 

 remarked that the small grassy lakes selected by 

 the musquash for its residence are never so firmly 

 frozen nor covered with such thick ice as deeper and 

 clearer water. The Indians kill these animals by 

 spearing them through the walls of their houses, 

 making their approach with great caution, for the 

 musquashes take to the water when alarmed by a 

 sound on the ice. An experienced hunter is so well 

 acquainted with the direction of the chamber and 

 the position in which its inmates lie, that he can 

 transfix four or five at a time. As soon as, from 



