MAMMALIA. 
I 78 
potatoes, carrots, turnips, parsnips, and other vegetables stored there. 
Not many years ago an aged couple lived alone in an old house in 
the town of Leyden, in Lewis County. They were at one time very 
much annoyed by curious sounds that were heard every night, and 
sometimes by day as well, and which seemed to come from beneath 
the floor near the open fire-place. Having determined at length to 
investigate the source of these mysterious noises, the aged pair com- 
menced by removing some of the hearth bricks that covered the very 
spot whence the sound usually came. Imagine their astonishment 
to find here two full-grown living Muskrats ! The luckless beasts 
were lifted out with the old iron tongs and slain upon the spot. 
The Muskrat, though chiefly nocturnal, is frequently seen swimming 
and feeding about the borders of ponds and streams in the day-time, 
particularly in cloudy weather. And when resting on the edge of a 
bog it so resembles a lump of mud as to escape the notice of those 
unacquainted with its habits. The distance that it can swim under 
water without coming to the surface to breathe is remarkable. 
Its homes are. of two principal kinds : huts and burrows. The 
latter are always present and may be inhabited at all times of the 
year, while the huts are for winter use and are confined to certain 
more or less restricted localities. 
The burrows are excavated in the shores of the water-courses 
which the animals inhabit. The entrance is under water, the burrow 
thence sloping upward into the bank a distance of ten or fifteen feet 
(3 to 4 .3 metres) to an air-chamber eighteen inches (about half a 
metre) or more in diameter, which often contains a nest. There may 
be several passages leading to this nest, all of which are under water 
the greater part of the year. The roof of the air-chamber is generally 
so near the surface of the ground that it frequently falls in, particularly 
in pastures where cattle abound. Leading away from it, one or 
more galleries commonly extend back a considerable distance, keep- 
ing so near the surface that their occasional “ caving in ” may result 
in extensive damage to the fields of the farmer. When the animal 
