THE MTTSKRAT 



It sometimes looks as if the muskrat were 

 weather-wise and could forecast the coming sea- 

 son. I doubt if a long series of observations 

 would bear out the truth of this remark, yet I 

 have noticed that in his nest-building he some- 

 times hits the mark with surprising accuracy. 



In the fall of 1878 I observed that he built 

 unusually high and massive nests. I noticed 

 them in several different localities. In a shallow, 

 sluggish pond by the roadside, which I used to 

 pass daily in my walk, two nests were in process 

 of construction throughout the month of Novem- 

 ber. The builders worked only at night, and I 

 could see each day that the work had visibly ad- 

 vanced. When there was a slight skim of ice 

 over the pond, this was broken up about the 

 nests, with trails through it in different directions 

 where the material had been brought. The 

 houses were placed a little to one side of the 

 main channel, and were constructed entirely of a 

 species of coarse wild grass that grew all about. 



