18 • THE AMERICAN BEAVER. 



animals of a corresponding grade. And yet no other 

 animal has attracted a larger share of attention, or 

 acquired by his intelligence a more respectable posi- 

 tion in public estimation. The reason is obvious. In 

 a pre-eminent degree he requires artificial erections to 

 promote his happiness, and to secure his safety; con- 

 sequently, we are enabled to place our hands upon his 

 works, and to trace step by step, through tangible 

 forms, the evidences of his architectural skill. Around 

 him are the dam, the lodge, the burrow, the tree-cut- 

 ting, and the artificial canal; each testifying to his 

 handiwork, and affording us an opportunity to see the 

 application as well as the results of his mental and 

 physical powers. There is no animal, below man, in 

 the entire range of the mammalia, which offers to our 

 investigation such a series of works, or presents such 

 remarkable materials for the study and illustration of 

 animal psychology. 



The specific characteristics and habitat of the 

 American beaver, and his position in the animal king- 

 dom, require some notice before entering upon the 

 subject of his artificial erections, habits, and mode 

 of life. Our interest in this animal will be much in- 

 creased by a preliminary consideration of these several 

 topics. 



Of the nine orders of mammals established by 

 Cuvier in his systematic treatise upon the Animal 

 Kingdom, the fifth is the order Rodentia, or the 

 gnawers. To this order the beaver belongs. He is 

 thus found in the same category with the squirrel, 

 the rat, the marmot, the porcupine, and the rabbit, 

 and with many other mammals, all of which agree in 

 the possession of two large incisive teeth in each jaw, 



