MUSK-EATS AND SQUIRRELS. 75 



if the home be disturbed ; and it is only by first discover- 

 ing these paths and blocking them, or by closing the one 

 exit at the base of the house from which the paths start, 

 that it becomes possible to secure all the occupants of 

 one of these winter nests or homes. While the exterior 

 of these structures is quite irregular and apparently rudely 

 or carelessly put together, it is evident that this exterior 

 is designedly arranged in this manner to make the home 

 appear like a stranded bunch of trash, transported thither 

 during some sudden rise and overflow of the stream, or 

 some filling up of the swamp, as the case may be. The 

 interior, however, of these structures is usually neatly 

 furnished and smoothed, and with its lining of soft ma- 

 terials, the entire structure bears no little resemblance to 

 an enormous bird's nest turned upside down. 



Even more than in the case of birds' nests, however, 

 there is a great deal of variation among these structures, 

 and the above description of a typical nest is taken from 

 my notes of two such structures which were carefully ex- 

 amined in the winter of 1880-'81. I have in this descrip- 

 tion made use of the best features of the two nests or 

 homes, and given a fair idea of what the structure is, when 

 every condition is such as the musk-rat desires. Like 

 birds, however, they have usually some objectionable fea- 

 ture to contend with, and hence they never erect pre- 

 cisely such a home as they are capable of constructing. 



Now these nests are not built every year, by any means. 

 In the same locality, near my home, where a colony of 

 musk-rats have good quarters and a comparatively easy 

 time, these animals one year content themselves simply 

 with their burrows in the higher ground that bounds the 

 wet or " mucky " meadow ; and the next year they erect 

 one or more of these dome-shaped houses. I had long no- 

 ticed this irregularity, and having mentioned it at various 



