258 



ZOOLOGY. 



the sweet flag, as well as mussels. In the autumn, before 

 the shallow lakes and swamps freeze over, it builds its low 

 conical house of mud, the base high enough to raise the 

 interior above the level of the water; the entrance being 

 under water. When the ice forms the musk-rat makes 

 breathing holes through it, and, says Richardson, protects 

 them from the frost by a covering of mud. In severe win- 

 ters these holes fill up and many of the animals die. In the 

 summer it makes long burrows in the banks of streams, 

 with a dry nest at the end. Richardson says that it calls 

 "to its mates by a peculiar shrill whistle. On the approach 





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^W > -N "i i mat. 



Fig. 396.— The Spalax or Blind-Rat. 



of a man it utters a feeble cry, like the squeak of a rabbit 

 when hurt." (Fauna Bor. Amer., i. 227.) 



Of the squirrels the chipmunk ( Tamias Asiaticus) inhab- 

 its Northwestern America; it is striped with five black and 

 four white stripes on the back. It is an active and indus- 

 trious little creature, with its check-pouches full of seeds. 

 During the winter it lives in a burrow, with several openings 

 made at the base of a tree. The chickaree or common red 

 squirrel (Scinrus Hudsonius) may be seen in the dead of 

 winter in pleasant weather; it burrows under trees; it feeds 

 chiefly on nuts and seeds, and in the fur countries subsists 

 chiefly on the seeds and young buds of the spruce. In New 

 England it eats the seeds in pine cones, letting the scales 



