tranquil parts of the stream covered with aquatic
plants, where the steep and shaded banks afford
excellent situations for the excavation of their
burrows. Such expanses of water are by the colonists called ponds. The animals may be readily
recognized by their dark bodies just seen level
with the surface, above which the head is slightly
raised, and by the circles made in the water around
them by their paddling action. On the slightest
alarm they instantly disappear; and, indeed, they
seldom remain longer on the surface than one or
two minutes, but dive head-foremost, with an
audible splash, reappearing, if not alarmed, a
short distance from the spot at which they dived.
Their action is so rapid, and their sense of danger
so lively, that the mere act of levelling the gun is
sufficient to cause their instant disappearance; and it is, consequently, only by watching them when
diving, and levelling the piece in a direction towards the spot at which they seem likely to reappear that a fair shot at them can be obtained. A near shot is absolutely requisite; and when wounded they usually sink immediately, but quickly reappear on the surface."
Mr. Bennett has described the burrows of these interesting animals, several of which he examined; they are constructed in the bank of the river, the entrance being above the surface, usually concealed among the herbage. Though the mouth is large, it quickly diminishes to a passage barely admitting the animal, but running along through the earth in a serpentine direction, sometimes to the distance of fifty feet, and terminating in a small chamber. Here the nest is placed, consisting of dried grass and weeds.
