Muskrat 
it is quite different from the call-note which they use to attract one 
another’s attention at a distance, or their more rat-like squeaking. 
The signal with which one warns the rest of danger is a 
smart slap of the muscular tail on the water. 
One morning, before the light had begun to come in the 
east, | was sitting on the margin of a stream where there is a 
muskrat colony, waiting for the wild ducks that come in from 
the sea at daybreak. 
Behind me was a dark swamp of heavy old growth hem- 
lock where the great horned owls were calling loudly to each 
other. So long as they kept at that distance the muskrats ap- 
parently paid no heed to their hooting; but the instant that | 
replied to one of the owls, counterfeiting its hallow, low-toned 
voice as closely as I could, the nearest muskrat swung his tail 
in air and brought the flat of it down on the water with a 
whack, and it was most amusing to hear the succession of whacks 
that responded all along the edge of the water, farther and 
farther away, each followed by the hurried plunge of its owner 
beneath the surface. These great eagle owls are among the 
worst enemies that the muskrats have to fear, for they will watch 
patiently, hour after hour, from their ambush among the pine 
boughs and then suddenly circle out over the meadows without 
the whisper of a feather. 
When a fox comes nosing along the stream’s margin, at 
dusk, you may hear the warning slap, slap, of rubbery tails 
from hidden pools and nooks among the rushes, as the muskrats 
get wind of his presence. But the muskrat’s tail has other and 
more important uses; it is both rudder and propeller as he 
swims, and a most convenient third leg when he stands up- 
right to look about, or reach a higher twig when he is browsing 
in the undergrowth and, unless | am very much mistaken, it 
also gives him added impetus as he dives headlong into the water. 
All through the summer and early fall the young muskrats 
live contented home lives with their parents, though not exactly 
under their protection, except as each depends on all the rest 
for timely warning at the first sign of danger; paddling and 
wading about in the shrunken streams and ponds, or curled into 
little brown, furry balls, fast asleep on the edge of the bank, 
hidden by the rank growth of flags and bullrushes, among which 
they have well-trodden paths, leading from place to place. 
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