MUSK RAT. 45 



Sarrazin at that time king's Physician at Que- 

 bec. It is from the above description that the 

 Count de Buffon has drawn up the major part of 

 his own account, and indeed it does not appear 

 possible to add any thing material to what Mons. 

 Sarrazin has delivered. This animal is of the size 

 of a small rabbet, and is extremely common in 

 Canada. Its head is short, like that of a water-rat ; 

 the eyes large ; the ears very short, rounded, and 

 covered internally as well as externally with hair. 

 It has, like the rest of this tribe, four very strong 

 cutting teeth, of which those in the lower jaw are 

 near an inch long ; those in the upper somewhat 

 shorter : the fur on the whole body is soft and 

 glossy, and beneath is a fine fur, or thick down, as 

 in the Beaver : the toes on all the feet are simple, 

 or without membranes, and are covered with 

 hair : the tail is nearly as long as the body, and 

 is of the same form with that of the Sorex mos- 

 chatus or Musk Shrew, being laterally compressed ; 

 it is nearly naked, and covered with small scales 

 intermixed with scattered hairs. The general co- 

 lour of the animal is a reddish brown ; of the tail 

 ash colour. In its general appearance this ani- 

 mal greatly resembles the Beaver, except in size, 

 and in the form of its tail. It has also similar in- 

 stincts and dispositions ; living in a social state in 

 the winter, in curiously-constructed huts or ca- 



* Sarrazin was also an excellent botanist, and the remarkable 

 genus Sarracenia was instituted in honour of him by Tournefort, to 

 whom he had sent specimens from Canada. 



