THE MUSKKAT. 



19 



often by their depredations make it difficult to establish the lilies in 

 new situations. The common white water lily (Nymphma odorata) 

 is said to be less subject to injury than the odorless species, while the 

 so-called lotus {Nelumbo) ^ both natiye and introduced species, is 

 most frequently injured. 



Dr. W. T. Hornaday testifies to the persistence of the muskrat in 

 ornamental ponds, saying: "When three bogs in the New York 

 Zoological Park were dug out and conyerted into ponds, the wild 

 muskrats in the Bronx Riyer found them as soon as they were com- 

 pleted, immediately took possession of them, and there they still 

 remain. Being yery destructive to lily bulbs and most other aquatic 

 plants, their presence in ornamental ponds is yery objectionable." ^ 



INJURY TO TIDAL MEADOWS. 



Along the Atlantic coast are large areas which are overflowed by 

 salt water at highest tides, but which produce useful though coarse 

 grasses. In some of these marshes dikes have been built over the low 

 places to exclude the tides. The quality of the grass is thus im- 

 proved and cutting by machine is made possible. The embankments 

 have gates to permit the drainage of surface water and to admit the 

 tides when desired. Muskrats often burrow into these dikes and 

 flood the lands at inconvenient times. They attack the tidal gates 

 also and gnaw holes through them, much to the annoyance of the 

 salt-water farmer. While this flooding of meadows results in incon- 

 venience, the losses are not great, and it is highly probable that if 

 properly protected the muskrats would yield better returns to the 

 owners of the land than they now obtain from the hay. 



INJURY TO DAMS AND EMBANKMENTS. 



The most serious damage done by muskrats is to dams and embank- 

 ments. Milldams, canals, irrigation ditches, ice ponds, and river 

 levees are more or less subject to injury from these animals. They 

 delight in the deep water afforded by artificial reservoirs. Whenever 

 a canal is built along a river valle}^, large numbers of muskrats 

 l^romptly desert the river for the new waterway and pierce the em- 

 bankments with their burrows. AVhere the berm bank of the canal 

 is high, little harm is done on that side ; but on the other bank and in 

 places where the berm slopes downward, water often penetrates the 

 burrows and disastrous breaks follow. It must be admitted, how- 

 ever, that sometimes the muskrat is blamed for breaks actually caused 

 by crayfish, pocket gophers, moles, and even the common brown rat. 



« American Natural History, p. 83, 1904. 



396 



