1 82 STRA NGE D WE LUNGS. 
however, seldom pass a nest without seeing it, and destroying ; 
the inmate. Being a nocturnal animal, the Bettong is sure to 
be at home and asleep during the daytime, so that when a 
native passes a nest he always dashes his tomahawk into its 
midst, thus killing or stunning the sleeping inmates. 
Our second and last example of the Building Mammalia is 
the Musquash, or Ondatra of North America (Fiber Zibethicus), 
sometimes called the Musk Rat. j 
This animal might have been placed among the burrowers, 
for it is quite as good an excavator as many which have been 
described under that title, but as it builds as well as burrows, 
it has been reserved for its present position in the work. 
Essentially a bank-haunting animal, it is never to be seen at 
any great distance from water, and like the beaver, to which it 
is closely allied, it is usually to be found either in the river ! 
itself or on its edge, where its brown, wet fur harmonizes so 
well with the brown, wet mud., that the creature can scarcely be 
distinguished from the surrounding soil. It is seen to the best 
advantage in the water, where it swims and dives with consum- 
mate ease, aided greatly by the webs which connect the hinder 
toes. 
The Musquash drives a large series of tunnels into the bank, 
excavated in various directions, and having several entrances, 
all of which open under the surface of the water. The tunnels 
are of considerable length, some being as much as fifty or sixty 
feet in length, and they all slope slightly upwards, uniting in a , 
single chamber in which is the couch of the inhabitants. If the ! 
animal happens to live upon a marshy and uniformly wet soil, 
it becomes a builder, and erects houses so large that they look 
like small haycocks. Sometimes these houses are from three 
to four feet in height. 
The natives take advantage of the habits of the animal, and 
kill it while it lies on its couch, much after the same manner as 
is used by the natives of Australia when they pass the house of 
the Bettong. Taking in his hand a large four-barbed spear, 
shaped something like the well-known ‘ grains’ with which 
