240 



NATURE- S CALENDAR 



November 6 



well with the rising water. " The musk- 

 rats have added a new story to their 

 houses since the last flood," Thoreau 

 noted on one 9th of November. " They 

 are uncommonly high ; I think full four 

 feet by fiv^e or more in diameter, a heap- 

 ing cart-load. ... I opened one. It was 

 composed of coarse - grass, pontederia 

 stems, etc., not altogether in mouthfuls. 

 This was three and a half feet above 

 water, others quite four. After taking 

 off a foot I came to the chamber. It 

 was a regularly formed oval or elliptical 

 chamber, about eighteen inches the long- 

 est way, and seven or eight inches deep, 

 shaped like a pebble, with smooth w^alls 

 of the weeds, and bottomed or bedded 

 with a very little drier grass — a mere coat- 

 ing of it. It would hold four or live, close- 

 ly packed. The entrance, eight or nine 

 inches wide, led directly from the water 

 at an angle of 45°, and the walls are of 

 such breadth at the bottom that the wa- 

 ter in the gallery probably never freezes." 

 But the muskrat houses vary greatly 

 in situation, form, and material ; and fre- 

 quently the animals will utilize a hollow 

 stump, standing beside the water, and 

 able to be entered from beneath the sur- 

 face. In such a case they will roof over 

 and cover up the stump until it is hidden 

 altogether. I have read of a pair of musk- 

 rats doin;^ the same thing with a stranded 

 barrel that stood on its end in the water. 

 Their greatest anxiety is in regard to the 



November 7 



