258 
ZOOLOGY, 
the sweet flag, as well as mussels. In tlie autumn, before 
the shallow lakes and swamps freeze over, it builds its low 
conical house of mud, the base high enough to raise the 
interior above the level of the water; the entrance being 
under water. When the ice forms the musk-rat makes 
breathing holes through it, and, says Richardson, protects 
them from the frost by a covering of mud. In severe win- 
ters these holes fill up and many of the animals die. In the 
summer it makes long burrows in the banks of streams, 
with a dry nest at the end. Richardson says that it calls 
^^to its mates by a peculiar shrill whittle. On the approach 
Fig. 296.— The Spalax or Blind-Rat. 
of a man it utters a feeble cry, like the squeak of a rabbit 
when hurt." (Fauna Bor. Amer., i. 227.) 
Of the squirrels tlie chipmunk {Tamias Asiaticiis) inhab- 
its Northwestern America; it is striped with five black and 
four white stripes on the back. It is an active and indus- 
trious little creature, with its cheek-pouches full of seeds. 
During the winter it lives in a burrow, with several openings 
made at the base of a tree. The chickaree or common red 
squirrel {Schirus Hudsonius) may be seen in the dead of 
winter in pleasant weather; it burrows under trees; it feeds 
chiefly on nuts and seeds, and m the fur countries subsists 
chiefly on the seeds and young buds of the spruce. In New 
England it eats the seeds in pine cones, letting the scales 
