DESCRIPTION 7 
Below and at the outside is the other half, which is placed 
edgewise with reference to the first described, with what we 
may call the underside turned toward the body of the 
animal. It is thin and rounded at the end, and thick at 
the base. The dimensions were } by +s inch. These two 
portions of the claw are movable, and like those of the first 
claw, can be closed tightly together (Fig. 5). 
Vernon Bailey gives the following excellent description 
of the way in which these claws are used: 
“Never until I had tame beavers to study did I fully 
understand the use and structure of these peculiar nails 
nor the reason for the incurving form of the two inner toes. 
My young beavers would sit and comb their fur for a half 
hour at a time, making elaborate toilets when they had 
nothing else to do. The curved finger nails of the hands 
were used on certain parts of the body, around the breast 
and head, the base of the tail, and especially in the short 
hair around the anus where the oil from the two oil glands is 
caught and held for distribution. ‘These finger nails were 
simply raked through the fur in a coarse combing and oil 
distributing process, preliminary to the final, thorough 
combing with the hind feet. Then with one foot at a time 
the sides, shoulders, and belly were systematically gone 
over with inward, rotary strokes of the two double claws, 
until every kink and snarl of the fur was straightened out 
and not improbably, as Seton suggests, any mites or insect 
parasites combed out and off.” 
The hind feet are the chief means of propulsion in swim- 
ming. 
The two large incisor teeth in each jaw are the tools with 
which the beaver does his woodcutting, and are excellently 
adapted to the purpose. The front sides of these teeth are 
composed of a thin layer of very hard enamel, with a thick 
layer of comparatively soft dentine behind it. As the 
