474 Yearbook of the Department of Agriculture, 1919. 



or loops will be well below the burrow, and make sure that 

 the trap will be sprung when the ridge is thrown up again. 



Mole skins- should be pinned out on boards and dried flat, 

 flesh side up, as shown in figure 18. After the pins have 

 boon driven the skin should be raised from the board to 

 allow the fur to stand erect. 1 



MUSKRATS. 



Muskrats live in ponds, streams, and marshes. Except in 

 waterless areas, the greater part of California, and the 

 coastal regions of several of the Southern States, these ani- 



Fig. 18. — Drying Mole Skins on a Board, Showing the Three Stages 

 of Work on One Skin. 



(1) Four pins are first used, one in each corner; (2) 4 intermediate pins are 

 then inserted, the skin being slightly stretched ; (3) finally 8 more pins are 

 tacked in, one between each two of those already in place. 



mals are found practically throughout North America from 

 the northern limit of trees to Mexico. Although occasion- 

 ally seen in the daytime, they are mainly nocturnal. They 

 oat vegetable food chiefly, as the fruit, foliage, and roots of 

 lilies and other water plants, but frequently vary this kind 

 of diet with mussels and occasionally with fish. 



The presence of muskrats is indicated in several ways. 

 In marshes they build conspicuous houses of mud and weeds 

 for winter occupancy. Those living in streams have holes 

 in banks below the surface of the water. In summer they 



1 See Farmers' Bulletins 583, " The Common Mole of Eastern United States,' 

 and 832, " Trapping Moles and Utilizing Their Skins." 



