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Round-tailed Muskrat
Also called: Neofiber.
- Length
- 13.60 inches.
- Description
- This animal is essentially a very big meadow mouse with a long tail. Colour above rich rufous brown, darker on the head; beneath whitish, more or less tinged with rufous; hairs plumbeous at base; tail sparsely haired, blackish in colour. Young gray above.
Range, Eastern Florida.
This curious animal is common in the fresh-water ponds and marshes of interior Florida and on the salt savannahs of the Indian River.
According to Mr. Bangs it builds a large oval nest, sometimes, like that of the muskrat, situated in the water and rising above the surface, and at other times among the mangroves or even in a hollow stump. The former nests have two openings below which communicate, when not covered by water, with underground passage ways. While the Neofiber swims with ease it is rarely seen swimming about in the manner of the muskrat.
Mr. Chapman states that their food consists of a succulent grass which grows abundantly where they are found. ``To procure the younger and more tender portions Neofiber constructs a platform of the larger stalks on which he sits and feeds at leisure on the shoots growing in his vicinity; the size of the platform depends upon the abundance of the food growing near it, the harder rejected portions constantly adding to its bulk.