See J. Adair, History of the American Indians, ; W. Bartram, Travels, 1791 ; J. Swanton, Bur. Am. Ethn. Bull. 43, 1911 ; 73, 1922. (A. L. K.) an Arctic American ruminant of the family Bovidae (q.v.), representing a genus and sub-family by itself.
The musk-ox (Ovibos moschatus) is in some respects intermedi ate between the sheep and goats on the one hand and the oxen on the other, but is probably more nearly allied to the former than to the latter. The musky odour from which the animal takes its name is not due to the secretion of a gland.
In height a bull musk-ox stands about 5f t. at the shoulder. The head is large and broad. The horns in old males have broad bases, meeting in the middle line, and covering the brow and crown of the head. They are directed at first downwards by the side of the face, and then turn up wards and forwards, ending in the same plane as the eye. In f e males and young males the horns are smaller, and their bases sep arated by a space. The ears are small, and nearly concealed in the hair. The space between the nostrils and the upper lip is covered with short hair; the rest of the animal is covered with long brown hair, thick, matted and curly on the shoulders, but elsewhere straight and hanging down, concealing the short tail. There is also a thick woolly under-fur, shed in summer in blanket-like masses. The limbs are stout and short, terminating in unsymmetrical hoofs, the external being rounded, the internal pointed, and the sole in part hairy.
Musk-oxen are confined to the northern parts of North Amer ica; they range over the "barren grounds" between lat. 64° and the shores of the Arctic sea. Northwards and eastwards they extend through the Parry islands and Grinnell Land to north Greenland. The Greenland animal is distinguished by white hair on the forehead. Musk-oxen ranged during the Pleistocene period over northern Siberia and the plains of Germany and France. They have also been found in Pleistocene gravels in England. They are gregarious, assembling in herds of 20 or 3o head, in which there are seldom more than two or three full-grown males; they run with considerable speed, but when attacked normally form a circle with the younger animals in the centre. Musk-oxen feed chiefly on grass. The female brings forth one young in the end of May or beginning of June, after a gestation of nine months. The peculiar musky odour can be perceived from a dis tance of zoo yards. According to Stefansson (The Friendly
Arctic, 1920, they are admirably suited for domestication. The flesh is excellent, the milk equal to that of the domestic cow and the wool of considerable value.
or MUSQUASH, large North American rat-like rodent Fiber zibethicus, belonging to the mouse-tribe (Muridae). Aquatic in habits, this animal is related to the English water-rat and therefore included in the sub-family Microtinae. (See VoLE.) It is, however, of larger size, the head and body being about 12 in. in length and the tail but lit tle less. It is a heavily-built ani mal, with a broad head and short limbs, the eyes are small, and the ears project little beyond the fur. The fore-limbs have four toes and a rudimentary thumb, all with claws; the hind limbs are larger, with five distinct toes, united by webs at their bases. The tail is lat erally compressed, nearly naked, and scaly. The hair consists of a thick soft underfur, interspersed with longer stiff, glistening hairs, which overlie and conceal the former, on the upper surface and sides of the body. The colour is dark umber-brown, almost black on the back and grey below. The tail and naked parts of the feet are black. The musky odour from which it derives its name is due to the secretion of a large gland situated in the inguinal region, and present in both sexes.
The ordinary musk-rat is one of several species of a genus peculiar to North America. It lives on the shores of lakes and rivers, swimming and diving with facility, feeding on the roots, stems and leaves of water-plants, or on fruits and vegetables which grow near the margin of the streams. Musk-rats are most active at night, spending the day concealed in their burrows in the bank, which consist of a chamber with numerous passages, all of which open under the surface of the water. For winter quarters they build more elaborate houses of conical or dome-like form, com posed of sedges, grasses and similar materials plastered together with mud. Their fur is valuable. (See RODENTIA.) a name for any species of the genus Croci dura of the family Soricidae (see INSECTIVORA), but generally used of the common grey musk-shrew (C. coerulea) of India which commonly frequents human habitations. The head and body, blue-grey in colour, measure about 6 in., and the tail is rather more than half that length.