472 Life-histories of Northern Animals 



and 8 young Beaver born also in a single lodge. He had also 

 found 6 young ones a number of times and all the numbers 

 below this down to a single young Beaver." 



At a month the young begin to eat solid food, and go 

 abroad with the mother; and at six weeks are weaned; but 

 they continue with their mother for a year longer at least. 



At 2 years they are old enough to mate, but are not fully 

 grown till 2| years old. They live for 12 to 15 years. 



FATHER What little evidence there is goes to show that the male is 



a model parent. Naturally his duties are small, since he is not 

 called on to nurse, feed, lead, or defend the young, but some 

 fathers are considered models when they refrain from doing 

 bodily harm to their offspring, and are especially admired if they 

 keep away altogether while the young are helpless in the nest. 



YELLOW- The Beavers near Yancey's, in Yellowstone Park, have, 



STONE . . . . r 



PARK like most wild things there, realized the blessed peace of the 

 Park. They came out soon after sundown while I watched 

 them from a hide. I saw 4 swimming about at the same time. 

 But only the biggest one seemed interested in repairing the 

 dam, and he worked *'like a Beaver" the whole time, never 

 passing the dam without adding something, and if he had 

 nothing else would dive to the bottom for a handful of mud, 

 and pound it into the dam wherever he fancied the water was 

 running over. It never seemed to occur to him that the water 

 must go over somewhere; so the work of stopping the supposed 

 leak goes on indefinitely and the dam grows bigger. 



In menageries where they have given the Beaver the privi- 

 lege of running water there is much complaint that in their 

 insensate mania for stopping the overflow they block drains, 

 etc., oblivious of the fact that but for benign and periodic human 

 interference on their behalf, they would speedily bring on 

 themselves a death by drowning. 



OUTCASTS Just as among Buffalo and Moose we have the lone bull 

 that is more or less of an outcast, so in the Beaver world we 



