

THE GUIDE TO NATURE 



A Chapter of the Agassiz Association. (Incorporated 1892 and 1910.) The Law of Love, Not the Love of Law. 



A Village of Muskrats. 



BY PAT I. LOCKWOODj LONG RIDGE, 



STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT. 



Four autumns ago, while hunting in 

 a patch of woods about three miles 

 north of Stamford, I ran across a vil- 

 lage of muskrats nestled in a swamp in 

 a cosy ravine. At first I did not rec- 

 ognize the queer, conical shaped 

 dwellings that dotted the swamp, and 

 when I did it was with the impression 

 that they were nothing but heaps of 

 driftwood and grass that had been 

 piled by the heavy spring rains that 

 had probably flooded the land. There 

 was one house, however, near the cen- 

 ter of the swamp that stood aloof from 

 the others, and it was through this 

 dwelling that the discovery was made. 



This particular building was made 

 chiefly of calamus roots and tufts of 

 swamp grass neatly plastered together 

 with mud. It differed from the other 

 huts in that it was not erected with 

 sticks, and was not built in a clump of 

 young willows as were the others. I 

 afterwards found that it contained a 

 colony of young outcasts, who upon 

 reaching their maturity had probably 

 been told by their older and experienc- 

 ed parents to get out and root for them- 

 selves. That they lacked experience 

 was evident from the manner in which 

 they had built their home, as it prac- 

 tically had no foundation, and was on 

 the very edge of the channel of the 

 stream that supplied the swam]), and 

 was exposed to the force of the heavy 

 spring rains. 



Not desiring to create the impression 

 that this is a Munchausen nature story, 



it will probably be advisable to give 

 the reasons for reaching such a conclu- 

 sion. In the first place the house was 

 not securely erected as already stated, 

 and looked like the work of amateurs 

 in comparison with the other houses. 

 Further, a trapper informed me that he 

 secured nothing but young rats when 

 trapping near the base, while from the 

 other houses he secured many old ones, 

 and a few young ones were taken. 

 That some of the young ones were al- 

 lowed to remain in the old dwellings 

 with their parents gave the impression 

 that those who occupied the new 

 houses were in all probability "unde- 

 sirables" and had been cast off after 

 the fashion of the bee. 



It was near dusk when I found the 

 village of little workers, and the ice 

 god had already started to demonstrate 

 his power, and what was to happen 

 before many weeks went by. Except 

 where the warm water from a nearby 

 spring threaded its way into the heart 

 of the little settlement, the entire pond 

 was encircled in a sheet of shimmering 

 ice. 



Some boys from the city had already 

 started to trap the inhabitants, and 

 with few exceptions all the runways 

 contained steel traps. In many in- 

 stances the inexperienced trappers had 

 erected miniature stockades of smail 

 twigs, and at the entrance had placed 

 a steel trap. These were baited with 

 apples. It was a "come on" game 

 practiced of old by the snider to lure 

 the fly, but in this case, as I afterwards 

 found out, the shrewd little fur-bearers 

 were somewhat foxier than the pro- 



