ght lines of rippling water showed in the misty screen we knew that
they were nothing but the wakes of swimming muskrats; and soon we
glided into a colony of them; but for the time being they were not at
home--the still-rising spring freshet had driven them from their
flooded houses.

The muskrat's little island lodge among the rushes is erected upon a
foundation of mud and reeds that rises about two feet before it
protrudes above the surface of the water. The building material, taken
from round the base, by its removal helps to form a deep-water moat
that answers as a further protection to the muskrat's home. Upon that
foundation the house is built by piling upon it more reeds and mud.
Then the tunnels are cut through the pile from about the centre of the
over-water level down and out at one side of the under-water
foundation, while upon the top more reeds and mud are placed to form
the dome-shaped roof, after which the chamber inside is cleared. The
apex of the roof rises about three feet above the water. In some
localities, however, muskrats live in dens excavated in the banks of
rivers or ponds. To these dens several under-water runways lead.

Muskrats feed principally on the roots and stalks of many kinds of
sub-aqueous plants. In winter time, when their pond is frozen over,
and when they have to travel far under water to find their food, they
sometimes make a point of keeping several water-holes open, so that
after securing their food, they may rise at a convenient hole and eat
their meal without having to make long trips to their house for the
purpose. In order to keep the water-hole from freezing, they build a
little house of reeds and mud over it. Sometimes, too, they store food
in their lodges, especially the bulbous roots of certain plants.

Muskrats, like beavers, use their tails for signalling danger, and when
alarm causes them to dive they make a great noise, out of all
proportion to their size. Thus the greenhorn from the city is apt to
take the muskrat's nightly plunges for the sound of deer leaping into
water; and just in the same way does the sleepless tenderfoot mistake
the thudding footfalls of the midnight rabbit for those of moose or
caribou running round his tent.

Muskrats are fairly sociable and help one another in their work. They
mate in April and their young are born about a month later. The
Indians claim that they pair like the beaver, and that the father helps
to take care of