SWIMMERS CONCLUDED 



unsuccessful. It was on a summer afternoon after 

 a shower. I was standing on the bank of a stream 

 when a water-rail flew up from the reeds on the 

 opposite bank, as if frightened suddenly, and fly- 

 ing with trailing legs across the water, dropped 

 into the grass on my side of the stream. Before 

 it was fairly alighted, a muskrat plunged into the 

 water near the place the rail had started from, 

 and swimming across, pushed in among the grass 

 where it had taken refuge, driving it again from 

 its retreat ; whereupon it flew back to its original 

 position. But the muskrat still followed, and 

 drove it back and forth several times before giv- 

 ing up the pursuit and swimming off up-stream. 



On the other hand, I have seen muskrats let 

 slip several opportunities for capturing birds of 

 one kind or another. One frosty morning in 

 April I was walking along the bank of Old River, 

 — a quiet, sedgy stream, half swamp and half 

 mill-pond, winding about and doubling back upon 

 itself in the shadow of the evergreens, with sev- 



i8s 



