rassy banks,
are so well suited to him. The water-rat of Europe is smaller, but of
similar nature and habits. The muskrat does not hibernate like some
rodents, but is pretty active all winter. In December I noticed in my
walk where they had made excursions of a few yards to an orchard for
frozen apples. One day, along a little stream, I saw a mink track amid
those of the muskrat; following it up, I presently came to blood and
other marks of strife upon the snow beside a stone wall. Looking in
between the stones, I found the carcass of the luckless rat, with its
head and neck eaten away. The mink had made a meal of him.

II. CHEATING THE SQUIRRELS.

FOR the largest and finest chestnuts I had last fall I was indebted to
the gray squirrels. Walking through the early October woods one day, I
came upon a place where the ground was thickly strewn with very large
unopened chestnut burs. On examination I found that every bur had been
cut square off with about an inch of the stem adhering, and not one
had been left on the tree. It was not accident, then, but design. Whose
design? The squirrels'. The fruit was the finest I had ever seen in the
woods, and some wise squirrel had marked it for his own. The burs were
ripe, and had just begun to divide, not "threefold," but fourfold, "to
show the fruit within." The squirrel that had taken all this pains had
evidently reasoned with himself thus: "Now, these are extremely fine
chestnuts, and I want them; if I wait till the burs open on the tree the
crows and jays will be sure to carry off a great many of the nuts before
they fall; then, after the wind has rattled out what remain, there are
the mice, the chipmunks, the red squirrels, the raccoons, the grouse, to
say nothing of the boys and the pigs, to come in for their share; so I
will forestall events a little; I will cut off the burs when they have
matured, and a few days of this dry October weather will cause everyone
of them to open on the ground; I shall be on hand in the nick of time to
gather up my nuts." The squirrel, of course, had to take the chances of
a prowler like myself coming along, but he had fairly stolen a march on
his neighbors. As I proceeded to collect and open the burs, I was
half prepared to hear an audible protest from the trees about, for I
constantly fancied myself watched by shy but jealous eyes. It is an
interesting inquiry how the squirrel knew the burs would open if left to
know, but thought the e