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THE STORY OF THE MUSQUASH. 
as they may find dead, or wounded and helpless. Occasionally they wander 
considerable distances from the water. 
The musquash is an excellent diver, being able to remain below the surface 
of the water for a considerable time. It is less of a night animal than the 
beaver, and often may be seen swimming about in broad daylight, especially 
in cloudy weather. When diving it makes a loud noise by striking the water 
with its tail, the same as a heaver. 
Its long burrow always has its entrance below the surface of the water, 
from which it inclines upwards in the bank ten or fifteen feet, and then widens 
out into a large chamber where the musquash makes its nest. Sometimes it 
will have one or two burrows leading from' this chamber further into the bank. 
THE MUSQUASH. 
Frequently the musquash collects heaps of vegetable matter in the form 
of hay-cocks over the place where it nests, with an airhole connecting its 
chamber with the outside world. In this respect also it resembles the beaver, 
except that many of the “musk-rat houses” contain no mud or sticks, but 
consist wholly of balls and knots of roots and swamp-grasses. 
The materials of which the hut is composed, it will be observed, are 
such as serve as food for the animals during the long winters; hence the 
musk-rat’s house is in reality a storehouse, which he devours piecemeal as 
the winter advances. * 
