2l8 



Handbook oj N ature-Sttidy 



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Winter lodge of muskrats. 

 Photo by Silas Lottridge. 



THE MUSKRAT 



Teacher's Story 



"Having finished this first co'.irse of big-neck clams, they were joined by a third 

 miiskrat, and, together, they filed over the bank and down into the meadow. Shortly 

 two of them returned with great moiithfids of the mud-bleached ends of calamus-blades. 

 Then followed the washing. 



They dropped their loads upon the plank, took tip the stalks, pulled the blades apart, 

 and soused them up and down in the water, rubbing them with thetr paws until they 

 were as clean and white as the whitest celery one ever ate. What a dainty picture! 

 Two little brown creatures, humped on the edge of a plank, washing calamus in moonlit 

 water!" — Dallas Lore Sharp. 



RACKING is a part of every boy's education who 

 aspires to a knowledge of wood lore ; and a boy with 

 this accomplishment is stire to be looked upon 

 with great admiration by other boys, less skilled in 

 the interpretation of that writing made by small feet, 

 on the soft snow or on the mud of stream margins. 

 To such a boy, the track of the muskrat is well 

 known, and very easily recognized. 

 The muskrat is essentially a water animal, and therefore its tracks are 

 to be looked for along the edges of ponds, streams or in marshes. "Whether 

 the tracks are made by walking or jumping, depends upon the depth of 

 the snow or mud; if it is deep, the animal jumps, but in shallow snow or 

 mud, it simply runs along. The tracks show the front feet to be smaller 



