468 
HABITS OF THE MUSQUASH. 
bitten through their roots, and carried them away to their subterranean storehouses. The 
maize they had procured by cutting the stalks near the level of the ground. 
The Ondatra lives mostly in burrows, which it digs in the banks of the river in which it 
finds its food, but sometimes takes up its abode in a different kind of habitation, according to 
the locality and the soil. In the stiff clay banks of rivers the Ondatra digs a rather compli- 
cated series of tunnels, some of them extending to a distance of fifteen or twenty yards, and 
sloping upwards. There are generally three or four entrances, all of which open under water, 
and unite in a single chamber, where the Ondatra makes its bed. The conch of the luxurious 
animal is composed of sedges, water-lily leaves, and similar plants, and is so large as to fill a 
bushel basket. On marshy ground, and especially if it be supplied by springs, the Ondatra 
builds little houses that rise about three or four feet above the water, and look something like 
small haycocks. 
ONDATRA OR MUSK RAT .— Fiber zibethicus. 
As the fur of the Ondatra is rather valuable, and the flesh is considered to be nearly as 
good as that of the wild duck, it is rather persecuted by the human inhabitants of the same 
land, as well as by the regular fur hunters. If these creatures have taken up their abode in 
burrows, the hunters capture them by stopping up all the holes which they can reach, and 
intercepting the animals as they try to escape ; but if the ground be marshy, and they live 
in houses or “ lodges,” a different plan is adopted. Being armed with a four-pronged barbed 
spear, the hunter creeps quietly towards one of the houses, and with the full strength of his 
arm drives the barbed prongs completely through the frail walls, transfixing one or more of 
the inhabitants. His companion, who is furnished with an axe, immediately hurls down 
the remainder of the wall, and secures the unfortunate victims who are held down by the 
merciless steel. 
The habits of the Ondatra are very curious, and are admirably related by Messrs. Audu- 
bon and Bachman, in the work to which allusion has already been made : — 
“Musk rats are very lively, playful animals when in their proper element, the water; 
and many of them may be occasionally seen disporting themselves on a calm night in some 
mill-pond or deep sequestered pool, crossing and recrossing in every direction, leaving long 
ripples in the water behind them, while others stand for a few moments on little hurdles or 
tufts of grass, or on stones or logs, on which they can get a footing above the water, or on the 
