544 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



place with his grass, and I did not see him again, akhough 

 the other reappeared and swam across the pool toward the 

 grassy bank, but this time upon reaching there it seemed to 

 hesitate, and then swam to a small outlet and disappeared in 

 the bank; neither of them appearing again, although I waited 

 for some time. 



"Twice when these two animals met in mid-stream, but 

 going in opposite directions, the one who had deposited his 

 burden stopped and nibbled the face and side of the other, but 

 the worker did not turn aside nor diminish the energy with 

 which it made for the other shore. The pair were evidently 

 associated, and, I think, were mates." 



Finally, Miles Spencer, of Fort George, H. B., writing^ 

 from personal experience backed by many inquiries among 

 the Indians, says that the female is assisted by the male in 

 rearing the young. Since such model paternalism is incom- 

 patible with polygamy, polyandry, or promiscuity, we must 

 believe that the monogamy of the Muskrat is fairly well es- 

 tablished. 



NESTING When the water near the shore is shallow it digs a canal 



from the deeper water along the bottom. This is like a railway 

 cutting, open at the top until the rise of the ground makes it 

 easier for the Muskrat to take the plunge, that is, to carry the 

 canal on as a tunnel, after which it ascends obliquely to a 

 chamber above the water level near the surface. The evolu- 

 tion of this canal is suggested in these notes from my journal. 

 In late May, at Cos Cob, John Crawford surprised a Muskrat 

 in the small pond while away from its hole in the bank. He 

 stood over the hole, and though the water was but 6 inches 

 deep at the time, it plunged into the mud and leaves at the 

 bottom, and by tunnelling in that stirred up such a cloud 

 that it escaped unseen into the hole. This I also saw the next 

 day. I think its real object in getting into the mud was to 

 swim as deep as possible, but it was at the same time begin- 

 ning a canal. 



' A. P. Low, Expl. James Bay, Can. Geol. Sur., 1888, App. Ill, p. 78 J. 



