BREEDING AND FAMILY LIFE ta 
In this connection I wish to record the observations I 
made in Yellowstone Park. <A lodge was under observation 
continuously from the early part of July, and though we 
saw two adults and three yearlings on nearly every visit, 
we saw, though watching for them, no young of the year 
until August 22, when three made their appearance, the size 
of large muskrats. I estimated the length of one which I 
was able to observe very closely for some time at eighteen 
inches. If Dixon is correct in giving the age of young four- 
teen inches long as a week these could not have been more 
than two weeks old. After that day they were often seen. 
It seems strange that they should have attained such a size 
before showing themselves, especially when the others of the 
family showed no particular fear of the spectators who stood 
on the shore of the pond practically every evening. This 
was in 1921. 
In 1928, at another pond in the same region, we spent 
several evenings watching the beavers, which were quite 
indifferent to our presence on a dam at the upper side of the 
pond. They swam about close to us, also going away to the 
farther end of the pond and there gathering young aspens, 
rose bushes and willows. The lodge was but a short dis- 
tance from where we were, and another lodge was also built 
in the dam above mentioned, which seemed to be honey- 
combed with tunnels and passages. Young could be heard 
in both lodges, into which food was taken, but the young- 
sters never appeared outside, though we had observations as 
late as August 25. Wesaw both adult and yearling beavers 
on every visit. 
My Yellowstone notes seem to be much at variance with 
the above observations of others, unless, indeed, the young 
observed there were second litters. The later season in the 
Yellowstone might possibly make some difference in the 
breeding as compared with California, but hardly enough to 
