144 NOTES BY THE WAY. 



season, or can it be that the young were not to hatch 

 till the following spring ? 



THE WEATHER-WISE MUSKRAT. 



I AM more than half persuaded that the muskrat 

 is a wise little animal, and that on the subject of the 

 weather, especially, he possesses some secret that I 

 should be glad to know. In the fall of 1878 I noticed 

 that he built unusually high and massive nests. I 

 noticed them in several different localities. In a shal- 

 low, sluggish pond by the roadside, which I used to 

 pass daily in my walk, two nests were in process of 

 construction throughout the month of November. 

 The builders worked only at night, and I could see 

 each day that the work had visibly advanced. When 

 there was a slight skim of ice over the pond, this was 

 broken up about the nests, with trails through it in 

 different directions where the material had been 

 brought. The houses were placed a little to one 

 side of the main channel, and were constructed en- 

 tirely of a species of coarse wild grass that grew all 

 about. So far as I could see, from first to last they 

 were solid masses of grass, as if the interior cavity or 

 nest was to be excavated afterward, as doubtless it 

 was. As they emerged from the pond they gradually 

 assumed the shape of a miniature mountain, very bold 

 *nd steep on the south side, and running down a long 



