336 FOUR-FOOTED AMERICANS 



" Our nuisance animals belong to four different 

 groups, so we will begin with the best known, — the' 

 familj' circle of Rats and iNIice. 



" The White Lemininy comes first on my list. It is a 

 I'ather wicked destroyer of grass and roots, belonging to 

 the cold north country with the Caribou, Musk Ox, and 

 Polar Bear. It furnishes many meals for the Arctic 

 Fox and the Snowy Owl, who evidently intend that 

 Lemmings shall not become too ]Ae^\^ix. It is sliort and 

 thick-set, about the size of a JNIole, with small ears, what 

 Olive calls 'pin-head' eyes, and a scrap of a tail like 

 a Rabbit.' In common Avith many of the northern 

 animals it wears ' protective coloring ' in its coat, being 

 covered, feet and all, with white fur in winter, chang- 

 ing to shaded browns in summer, the season that it 

 burrows in the ground. Its winter nests are of moss 

 above ground or in little snow caves. 



" The next is that swimming, burrowing gnawer the 

 Mushrat, who is every inch a rat as far down as- his 

 flattened tail and scaly, webbed hind legs, wliere he sug- 

 gests the shape of his bui-rowing and mud-pie-making 

 brotlier, the Beaver. He is a heavy animal, with short 

 neck and long, sharp hind claws for digging, and fore 

 paws like hands, with four fingers and a thumb. He 

 secretes a muskj^ odor that gives him his name. 



" Tlie Muskrat is certainlj^ the aristocrat of his family, 

 for he wears a most beautiful, soft fur coat that neither 

 mud nor water can destroy. (Your father, you remem- 

 ber, has a cap made of it. ) He finds places suitable for 

 his home in the greater part of North America, and 

 there are few ponds and sluggish streams that do not 

 tell tales of him. He lives and finds his food in the 



