242 • NATURE'S CALENDAR 



November lo houses indicates the length or rigor of 



the winter to come. Thus it is said 



that the muskrats build their houses 

 twenty inches higher and very much 

 warmer in early and long winters than 

 in short ones. This idea gained cre- 

 dence from the observation of their 

 - habit of increasing the height of their 

 houses as autumn advances, until the 

 top is well above the ordinary level of 

 the water or ice. Dr. C. C. Abbott, of 

 Trenton, N. J., took the trouble to make 

 careful notes of this matter for twenty 

 years, and found no relation whatever 

 between the size and structure of the 

 houses and the character of the winter. 



Many weather prognostications relate 

 to this month. Thus there is a quatrain, 

 about the whiteness of a goose's breast- 

 bone, often repeated by old farmers : 



" If the November goose bone be thick' 

 So will the winter weather be; 

 If the November goose bone be thin 

 So will the winter weather be." 



A heavy November snow, they say in 

 New England, will last until April; and 

 on the northern lakes they firmly be- 

 lieve that thunder and lightning in No- 

 vember foretells that the lakes will re- 

 main open until Christmas. There is 

 also a proverb ; 



"As is the wind in the month of November, 

 so will it be in the month of December." 



November ii 



