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 the children. The young number from three to eight.
When they are full grown their coats are dark brown. In length
muskrats measure about eighteen inches, while in weight they run from a
pound and a half to two pounds.

Except in autumn, their range is exceedingly small, though at that
season they wander much farther away from their homes. If danger
threatens they are always ready to fight, and they prove to be
desperate fighters, too. While slow on land, they are swift in water;
and such excellent divers are they that in that way they sometimes