THE WILD LIFE OF LAKE SUPERIOR 



193 



Photograph by George Shiras, 3d 



IMITATING THE BEAVER HOUSE 



A large muskrat house constructed entirely of sticks and mud, closely resembling in shape 

 and material that of the beaver; south end of Whitefish Lake. 



vicinity, a large number have been omit- 

 ted which may now be noted in order to 

 complete the record. No migrant pass- 

 ing to the north or returning in the fall 

 is included, but only those found nesting 

 or in company with young too immature 

 to have crossed Lake Superior. Among 

 the birds are the following: 



The hooded merganser, mallard, black-duck, 

 wood-duck, bittern, great blue heron, solitary 

 sandpiper, spotted sandpiper, and killdeer ; the 

 hawks include Cooper's, the red-tailed, broad- 

 winged, and the sparrow-hawk, and the owls 

 are the barred and the western horned, both 

 winter residents. Among the other birds are 

 the black-billed cuckoo, belted kingfisher, hairy 

 and downy woodpeckers, yellow-bellied sap- 

 sucker, northern pileated woodpecker, flicker, 

 nighthawk, chimney swift, ruby-throated hum- 

 ming-bird, kingbird, phoebe, olive-sided fly- 

 catcher, wood pewee, alder flycatcher, least 

 flycatcher, cowbird, meadow lark, bronzed 

 grackle, purple finch, goldfinch ; and the spar- 

 rows are the vesper, white-throated, chipping, 

 field, song, and the Lincoln sparrow (doubtful), 

 together with the slate-colored junco, the rose- 

 breasted grosbeak, barn swallow, tree swallow, 

 cedar waxwing (see page 123) ; and the warb- 

 lers are the black and white, black-throated 

 blue, myrtle, chestnut-sided, Blackburnian, and 

 black-throated green warbler, the list con- 



cluding with the oven-bird, Grinnell's water 

 thrush, house wren, white-breasted nuthatch, 

 chickadee, olive-backed thrush, and bluebird.* 



CHAPTER XI 



THE BEAVER AND THE MUSKRAT ! A COM- 

 PARISON 



Conspicuous among the few North 

 American animals which have no repre- 

 sentative in the Old World is the musk- 

 rat, its fossil remains being found in 

 Pleistocene deposits in many parts of the 

 United States, while the beaver belongs 

 to a more remote time, its ancestors going 

 back to the Tertiary period, when they 

 were associated with the mastodons and 

 mammoths throughout portions of Eu- 

 rope and Asia. 



Considering the early importance of 

 the beaver as a source of fur and food, 

 and the respect shown its skill in con- 

 structing dams and houses, in cutting 



* This list was verified by Mr. Xorman 

 Wood, field naturalist of the Michigan Uni- 

 versity Museum, who spent the spring and 

 summer of 19 18 at the author's camp. 



