52 EXTINCT BRITISH ANIMALS. 
“They are remarkably shy of anything human, and 
upon the least alarm ‘flop’ goes one of the flat tails 
upon the water, and ‘presto!’ not a Beaver is to 
be seen. 
‘They feed mostly on the inner bark of the Scotch 
fir, great quantities of which they store under water 
near their house; they also eat the younger shoots of 
the bracken fern, and one or two smaller shrubs of 
which I do not know the names. They are also very 
fond of the bark of young willow shoots, which the 
keeper supplies them with from time to time in the 
winter.” 
Since the date of Mr. Hockin’s visit the keeper 
who has charge of these Beavers, Mr. J. 8. Black, has 
published a most interesting account of them in the 
Journal of Forestry, for February, 1880,* which 
we cannot do better than quote in extenso. He says :— 
“Tn 1874, the Marquis of Bute having obtained four 
beavers, caused a space of from three to four acres in 
extent to be enclosed in the wood between Meikle 
Kilchattan and Drumreach, and placed them there. 
These not succeeding, his lordship, on 6th January, 
1875, obtained seven others. Of these, four suc- 
ceeded so well that in 1878 I was certain of sixteen 
being alive, which makes an average increase of four 
each season. There is a further increase this season, 
but to what extent I cannot say. 
“ Arriving as they did in midwinter, these little 
* © A Short Account of how the Marquis of Bute’s Beavers have 
succeeded in the Isle of Bute, Scotland.’ By Joseph Stuart Black, 
Keeper, Bute Estate. 
