WILD LIFE OF ORCHARD AND FIELD 



carefully cleared of vegetation and loose mud. 

 The interior is usually soft grass, but whether this 

 is arranged as the building proceeds or is put into 

 a chamber hollowed out from beneath after the 

 mass has been heaped up I do not know. 



The houses are of various shapes and sizes, 

 and doubt is thrown upon the present sagacity 

 (to say nothing of the alleged foreknowledge) of 

 the architects, when it is known that a large pro- 

 portion of them are so placed that the first regular 

 late fall rise in the water is sufficient to drown 

 the denizens out and sweep the whole structure 

 away. At any rate, the evidence scarcely justifies 

 measuring muskrat lodges as a means of forecast- 

 ing winter. It is better to get instruction by ob- 

 serving their structure and uses, and amusement 

 by contemplating them as interesting features of the 

 landscape. "'In the still sunny days," to quote 

 again from one of Rowland Robinson's graceful 

 New England essaj^s, " between the nights of its 

 unseen building, the blue spikes of the pickerel 

 weed and the white trinities of the arrow-head 

 yet bloom beside it. Then in the golden and 

 scarlet brightness of autumn the departing wood- 

 drake rests on the roof to preen his plumage, and 

 later the dusky duck swims on its watery lawn. 



20 



