XVI. 



Canadian Beaver. 



Castor canadensis Kuhl. 

 (L. Castor, a beaver; L. canadensis, of Canada.) 



Castor canadensis KuHL, 1820. Beitrage Z. Zool., p. 64. 

 Type Locality. — Hudson's Bay. 



French Canadian, le Castor. 

 Cree, Ah-misk'. 

 MusKEGO, Ah-mik-kuk. 

 OjiB, Ah-mik\ 

 Chipewyan, Tsa. 

 Yankton Sioux, Tcha-pa. 

 Ogallala Sioux, Chan-pah^. 



The Family Castoridce contains but one genus, Castor 

 (Linnaeus, 1758); the animals in this are very large rodents of 

 aquatic habits. They have a massive skull of general squirrel- 

 type; short ears; 5 toes on each foot; the hind-foot webbed; 

 the claw of second toe on hind-foot is double (possibly for 

 use as a comb and louse-trap); tail broad, flat horizontally, 

 and scaly; the incisors of a deep orange colour. 



ieeth: inc. ^ ; prem. ; mol. ^^^-^ = 20 



i-i i-i ^-1, 



In addition to these generic characters, the Canadian 

 Beaver has: Length, 43 inches (1,092 mm.); tail, 16 inches 

 (406 mm.), of which the scaly part is 9 inches (229 mm.) long 

 and 4I inches (115 mm.) wide; hind-foot, 7 inches (177 mm.). 



A male which I got near Great Slave River, July 1 1, 1907, weight 

 weighed 30 pounds; this was considered of fair size. But I 

 saw one weighed at 54 pounds; this was taken at Broken- 

 head, Manitoba, in 1886; and although Bachman gives' 61 



' Quad N. A., 1849, Vol. I, p. 353. 



447 



