MAMMALIA — BEAVER. 



223 



face tapering to the nose, which is a hard gristly substance, well adapted 

 for removing the earth when it burrows ; each jaw has two cutting teeth, 

 long and sharp like those of a kanguroo, with a space of an inch between 

 them and the grinders, which are strong and well set. From the structure 

 of its teeth, it does not appear to be a carnivorous animal ; its eyes are 

 small and black ; its ears short and pointed. The paws are something like 

 a beaver's, with which it runs so awkwardly that a man could easily over- 

 take it. Its posteriors differ from most other animals, by falling down in a 

 sloping direction, commencing at the hip joint, and descending to the knee 

 joint of the hind legs ; its tail is so short that it is scarcely perceivable. 

 The general color is a cream brown, intermixed with black hairs. The 

 female, like most other animals of New South Wales, is distinguished by a 

 pouch or false belly for its young. The flesh is considered by the natives 

 as a great luxury. 



ORDER SIX — GLIRES. 



Animals of this order have two large incisors in each jaw, separated 

 from the molars by a vacant space ; no canine teeth ; molars with flat 

 crowns, or blunt tubercles ; extremities, the posterior longest, terminated by 

 unguiculated toes, the number varying according to the species ; mammae 

 variable in number ; stomach simple ; intestines very long. 



THE BEAVER. 1 



The beaver seems to be now the only remaining monument of that kind 

 ol intelligence in brutes, Avhich, though infinitely inferior, as to its princi- 



1 Castor fiber, Lin. The genus Castor has two upper and two lower incisors ; eight upper 

 and eight lower molars. Molars composed ofa flat crown, with sinuous and complicated 

 ridges of enamel ; live toes on each foot, the anterior short and close, the posterior longer 

 and palmated ; tail broad, thick, flattened horizontally, of an oval form, naked and cover- 

 id with scales. 



