MUSKRAT, or MUSQUASH, an aquatic rodent (Fiber zibethicus) numerous throughout North America, and yielding a valuable fur. It is a member of the rat family (Micride, q.v.), and is, in effect, a gigantic vole or meadow mouse, with a tail flattened sideways into a powerful swimming instrument, and fringed with stiff hairs; the hind feet are set obliquely to the leg; the ears are very small and buried in fur, the muzzle is blunt and furry; the palms and soles are naked and fringed with hairs. The average total length is about 21 inches, of which the tail is more than a third, measuring as long as the body without the head. The color varies above from almost black to pale brown; sides of head and body chestnut-brown under-fur bluish gray; feet dark brown; tail black. Those of the Rocky Mountain region are smaller and paler than Eastern ones. The musky odor of these animals is due to a thick fluid secreted in two small glands near the generative organs, which imparts a taint to the flesh that makes it unpalatable to most persons.
These animals reside along small streams, and in swampy places generally, being most abundant around Chesapeake Bay and in the marshy lakes of the upper Mississippi region and northward to Hudson Bay. Where the banks have some elevation they form extensive burrows, which have entrances below the sur face of the water, and gradually ascend till they terminate in a chamber above the level of high water. These burrows are most frequently made under the roots of trees, or in other situ ations of difficult access. The excavations are of great injury to artificial embankments along canals and rivers, by permitting the water to undermine and to make large breaches in them, and in some parts of the country they do seri ous damage to canal embankments and dikes. When, however, these animals inhabit low and marshy situations, they construct con ical houses usually surrounded by water, not unlike those of the beaver but smaller, com posed of reeds, etc., mixed with clay. These
houses have subterranean passages leading to them, and are inhabited by many individuals during the winter; but in the warm weather they desert them entirely, and dwell in pairs in a bank-burrow while they rear their young. The houses contain a large, smooth-walled chamber, above the water-line; and when frozen are sufficiently solid to form a protection against all but the largest carnivora; but they are usually destroyed and swept away in the spring floods, so that a new house is erected every season.
The muskrat feeds mainly upon aquatic vegetation, especially the rootstocks and basal parts of stems, and is especially fond of the pond-lily. These it brings to the shore to eat, almost always during the night, for it is es sentially nocturnal, although often seen abroad in the daytime. It is very fond of mussels, and brings great quantities of these ashore, al ways, when possible, at the same place, so that piles of their shells accumulate to indicate favorite feeding-spots. In summer the musk rats feed on shore-herbage somewhat, and fre quently go some distance to get a meal of growing corn, garden vegetables or fallen fruit. They are accused also of occasional fish-catch ing, and are unwelcome in waters devoted to fish-culture. Because of the commercial value of its fur and of its destructiveness in some Owes, or for amusement, the muskrat is in cessantly persecuted 'by man, as well as preyed upon by many natural enemies —minks, wolverines, foxes, wildcats, badgers, wolves, birds of prey, water-moccasins, snapping-turtles, pikes and others, which capture many young and some adults. Nevertheless they are so secretive and so prolific, and have found so many advantages in the civilized parts of the country, that they survive even in the most thickly settled districts, and are likely to main tain their numbers indefinitely. They produce from three to nine young at a birth, and often breed two or three times a year.