LITTLE BEASTS OF FIELD AND WOOD 



the chisel-like teeth of a muskrat. They are 

 also occasionally bitten on the back or shoulders, 

 and less frequently about the head, evidently not 

 being at all particular about having all their 

 wounds in front. 



I have never had the opportunity of witnessing 

 one of these combats, all the meetings that I have 

 seen between them having been of a friendly 

 nature. Last spring, for example, I was sitting on 

 the side of a hill above a stream that wound around 

 its base, when I saw two muskrats, a dozen rods 

 apart, swimming towards each other, but each 

 evidently wholly unaware of the other's presence 

 on account of the windings of the stream. On 

 meeting, they appeared to touch noses, and then 

 one immediately turned about in the water and 

 swam back down-stream, while the other landed 

 on a tussock of grass with something in its teeth 

 which it proceeded to devour, and which I felt 

 certain it had received from the other. 



In swimming, the muskrat depends almost 

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