THE LIFE OF A BEAVER COLONY 99 
material. A little grass was cut and carried in, 
but grass gets wet and soggy and is not really 
a serviceable substance. Finely-shredded wood is 
better. So they cut down a cedar, which is the 
best of all trees for the purpose, and taking it 
piece by piece into the lodge tore it into fine 
shreds and made a deep bed, which was sanitary 
as well as comfortable. Of course certain parasites 
would make their home in it and cause the beaver 
great annoyance, but that could not be avoided. 
All they could do would be to use the curious 
split second toe-nail of their hind feet as a comb 
with which to make their daily toilet and dislodge 
the intruders. 
As the home was nearing completion the beavers 
took in a pair of muskrats as uninvited tenants— 
for, curiously enough, muskrats nearly always 
make a winter home in the lodge, not living 
actually in the main room, I believe, but making 
a small nest for themselves in the wall, the 
entrance to which is either through an off-shoot 
of the regular burrows or else one made entirely 
by themselves. Apparently they do not interfere 
in any way with the rightful owners of the lodge, 
unless possibly they steal some of the smaller twigs 
from the wood-pile, for they too depend to some 
extent on bark for nourishment, though grass and 
roots form the greater part of their diet. Some 
writers maintain that the muskrat, or musquash, 
is an enemy of the beaver, who kill them whenever 
H 2 
