Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/110

 102 MUSKRAT can be distinguished only by the skilful hunter. Only one living species is known, and the geo- graphical distribution of this is not precisely ascertained. It is very rare in collections, the only specimen in the United States being in the museum of the Philadelphia academy of natural sciences, a stuffed skin presented by Dr. Kane. It is said to occur fossil at Esch- scholtz bay on the N. W. coast. The bos Pal- lasii (De Kay) of North America and the fos- sil oxen found in various parts of the United States, coming near the musk ox, have been described by Dr. Leidy, under the name of bootherium, in vol. v. of the "Smithsonian Contributions to Knowledge" (1853), as the B. camfrons and B. bombifrons ; these proba- bly, he says, were clothed in a long fleece, and inhabited the great valley of the Mississippi just anterior to the drift period. The Sibe- rian and northern European fossils probably belong to the genus ombos. MUSKRAT (fiber zibethicm, Cuv.), an Ameri- can rodent, the only species of its genus, well known for its aquatic habits ; it is also called musquash, musk beaver, and ondatra. The dentition is : incisors f-, and molars f i-f, in all 16 teeth. The body is rat-like, the head and neck short ; the eyes and ears very small, the latter having no special arrangement except their dense fur to exclude the water ; the up- per lip not cleft, and hairy between the teeth and nose ; lips thick and fleshy ; nose thick and obtuse ; six horizontal rows of whiskers, with some over the eye and under the chin; the legs short, and the thighs hid in the body ; the claws compressed and incurved, the third toe the longest on the fore feet and the fourth on the hind feet; the hind feet appear slightly twisted, the inner edge posterior to the outer, by which the animal can "feather the oar" when the foot is brought forward in swim- ming; all the feet are partly webbed, naked below, covered with short hairs above, and Muskrat (Fiber zibethicus). have their edges more or less margined with bristly fringes ; the tail is two thirds as long as the body, compressed, two-edged at the end, scaly, with short thin hair ; the fore feet are four-toed, with a wart-like thumb, and the hind feet five-toed. The head and body are MUSONIUS from 13 to 15 in. long, and the tail 9 or 10 in. ; the general color is ruddy brown above, dark- er on the back, and cinereous beneath ; some specimens are very dark brown ; the long hair is fine, compact, and silky, with coarser hairs intermingled, especially above. It is more ex- tensively distributed over North America than the beaver, and unlike the latter does not dis- appear at the approach of civilization; it is found from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and from the Rio Grande to arctic America, even on the N. W. coast ; it occurs nowhere in the old world. Fortunately for the rice planter, it is not found in the alluvial lands of the Caro- linas, Georgia, Alabama, and Florida, though it extends much further south. Its favorite local- ity is a grassy marsh or bank of a lake or .slug- gish stream ; nocturnal in habit, it is occasion- ally seen in the daytime swimming a stream or diving into the mouth of its hole ; awkward on land, it is an excellent swimmer and diver, and very lively and playful in the water; it often swims 15 or 20 yards under water. The burrows are made in banks skirting streams, the entrances being under water, thence lead- ing upward above the highest freshets ; their winter galleries often extend 40 or 50 ft. from the water, the central part containing the nests, made of dried reeds and grasses; in swamps and marshy lands they sometimes raise mounds of sticks, twigs, and leaves from 2 to 4 ft. above the surface, in which are their grassy beds large enough to accommodate several ani- mals ; the entrance to these is also under wa- ter, the surface of which they take care shall not be entirely frozen. The fur was once in great demand for hats, and hundreds of thousands of skins were annually exported for this purpose to Europe; their value is now very small, as they are used chiefly for cheap furs; the animal, however, is generally killed when possible, to prevent the destruction of dams and embankments. They are not at all cunning, and may be caught in ordinary box traps, or in steel traps placed just under water and baited with sweet apples or parsnips ; they are often dug out of their holes, hunted by dogs, and speared in their nests. Great num- bers are killed by lynxes, foxes, owls, and oth- er rapacious mammals and birds. Like the common rat, they are omnivorous, feeding on grasses, roots, vegetables, mussels and other mollusks, fruits, and even flesh ; they are in- jurious rather from digging under embank- ments and undermining meadows than from destroying vegetation either in field or garden. They are very prolific, bringing forth four to six young at a time, three times a year. They have a strong musky odor, -which to most per- sons is less offensive than that of the mink, and far less so than that of the skunk; the flesh is considered palatable in some localities. MUSK TURTLE. See TORTOISE. MUSOMUS, Cains Rnfns, a Roman stoic of the 1st century A. D. Nero banished him to Gya- rus in 66, under pretence of his having been