882 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



in burrows dug deep beneath the banks, but those in- 

 habiting sluggish streams and ponds usually construct 

 a conical winter house about three feet in diameter and 

 from two to three feet in height. These houses are 

 made of coarse grasses, rushes, branches of shrubs, 

 and small pieces of driftwood, closely cemented to- 

 gether with stiff, clayey mud. The top of the house 

 usually projects two feet or more above the water, 

 and when sun-dried is so strong as to easily sustain 

 the weight of a man. The walls are generally about 

 six inches in thickness and are very difficult to pull 

 to pieces. Within is a single circular chamber with a 

 shelf or floor of mud, sticks, leaves and grass, ingen- 

 iously supported on coarse sticks stuck endwise into 

 the mud after the manner of piles. In the center of 

 this floor is an opening, from which six or eight di- 

 verging paths lead to the open water without, so that 

 the little artisan has many avenues of escape in case 

 of danger. These houses are often repaired and used 

 for several winters in succession, but are vacated on 

 the approach of spring. During the summer the 

 muskrat is, in the main, a herbivorous animal, but in 

 winter necessity develops its .carnivorous propensities 

 and it feeds then mainly upon the mussels and cray- 

 fish which it can dig from the bottom of the pond or 

 stream in which its house is built. 



The bats pass the winter in caves, the attics of 

 houses and barns, or in hollow trees, hanging down- 

 ward by their hind claws. Motionless for months 

 they thus remain, and those in the more exposed situ- 

 ations are, doubtless, frozen solid. Yet, in time, their 

 blood flows freely once again and they become as 



