ALONG FOUR-FOOTED TRAILS 



tender morsels of its red flesh with their strong, 

 hooked bills. 



The poor muskrat would never know the 

 joys of a western winter. It seemed a pity that 

 he must die the first summer of his life. Joe 

 said that each wild animal was obliged to live 

 at the expense of some other. It was his way 

 of saying that the " survival of the fittest " was 

 one of the great laws of nature. 



The next morning Joe and I returned on 

 horseback to the point on the bank of the stream 

 where the surviving young rat had entered his 

 burrow the previous night. As we rode along 

 a short distance back from the bank the turf 

 gave away under one of the front feet of my 

 pony. Joe said that must be near the end of 

 the burrow because it was so near the surface. 

 He opened the burrow for several feet when we 

 came to a larger cavity lined with some dry grass 

 upon which lay seven hairless little muskrats 

 with their eyes closed. There were two other 

 avenues like this branching off from the first one 

 we found and as we neared the bank the bur- 

 row ran down to a depth of four feet, with three 

 entrances, all under water. Muskrats may do 

 [144] 



