Natural Hidory and Hunting of the Beaver. 55 



continue so till the middle of May— though if a trapper thought of 

 revisiting the place, he would not trap after April, so as to allow them 

 to breed quietly. 



About the end of iNIarch the beaver begins to " call." Both male? 

 and females "call" and answer one another. Sometimes on one " call- 

 ing," half a dozen will answer from different parts of the lake. I have 

 known beavers to "call" as late as^ August. Males fight during the 

 rutting-season most fiercely. Hardly a skin is without scars; and 

 large pieces are often bitten out of their tails. The beaver holds like 

 a bull dog, but does not snap. It shakes its head so as to tear. When 

 trapped, it will face a man, dodge a stick, and then seize it, taking 

 chips out of it at every bite. It seems to attack from behind. 



The period of gestation is known with little certainty, as they are 

 never trapped in sununer. The female brings forth some time about 

 the end of June ; and it is a year before a beaver is full grown ; and 

 even then it has not the emhonpoint of an elderly beaver. 



I have read that the beaver breeds at any time during the year ; but 

 this can not be, or all the kittens that are trapped in the fall would 

 not be of the same size. It produces from three to four at a birth. 

 The teats are placed between the fore legs. The young (called kittens) 

 whimper like young puppies when suckling, even when two months 

 old. The females prefer deep, sedgy lakes to bring their young up in, 

 and they feed on grass about that time of the year (July or August). 

 They feed on willow about April, INlay, and June. I can not say 

 whether they are born blind or not, but suspect so. They are very 

 fond of Avater-lilies (Nuphar advena, Ait.) in the spring. It is with 

 me a matter of uncertainty whether. the female litters in a house, 

 under the ground, or in the dry sedges ; but I should think, under 

 o-round or in the houses. In the autumn more females are caught 

 than males. Trapping commences in September, and continues to 

 ]\Iay ; after that the trappers leave them alone, so that I do not know 

 much about their doings in the summer. 



They begin to build their dams about July or August, as soon as 

 the summer floods begin to subside. For this purpose they generally 

 choose a bend in the stream, with high and clayey banks, and com- 

 mence by felling a large tree that will reach across the water; or they 

 fell a tree on each side of the water, so as to meet in the center. They 

 then float sticks from 6 to 4 feet long down to the dam, and lay them 

 horizontally, filling in the spaces with roots, tufts of grass, leaves, and 

 clay or mud. The branches of the first tree are the perpendicular sup- 

 ports, almost all the remaining sticks being placed horizontally and 

 crosswise. The last six or eight inches in height is very insecurely 

 constructed, being nothing but mud and leaves. 



