.^i-a* 



^'^TT'^JS^- 



^^rVrM^*b^fJ^ 



Schaeffer's Farm, Newburg, where the Brooklj-n mastodon was found, 

 beaver pond, now a fertile meadow 



■h'^;/--*"'-^*; 



The site of an ancient 



most natural, is that the beaver uses his 

 tail as a trowel, and also in the trans- 

 portation of various materials. He 

 really ought to do these things for which 

 the tail seems so well adapted, but he 

 doesn't. He does however, give notice 

 of impending danger by striking the 

 ground or water, as the case may be; 

 and the slap of a beaver's tail on the 

 water will resound through the quiet 

 night like the crack of a rifle. 



So much for the beaver in general; a 

 great deal more might be said about 

 him, and has been said in a number of 

 books, besides numberless papers, popu- 

 lar and otherwise. 



As might be expected, any animal that 

 covers almost the length and breadth of 

 a continent is subject to 

 variation in parts of its 

 range, and although ten- 

 dency to vary is in a meas- 

 ure checked by great simi- 

 larity in habitat and 

 habits, there is 

 enough to divide th^ 

 beaver into four or 

 five geographic races 

 or subspecies. That 

 shown in our group 



/Jv^^odaVi^^o 



The Arms of New Amsterdam 



is the Sonoran beaver. The specimens 

 with the permission of the Department 

 of Game and Fish of Colorado, were 

 taken by Mr. Albert E. Butler in the sum- 

 mer of 1913 and so do not show the ani- 

 mals at their best as regards coat, 

 although it is necessary to show them at 

 this time of year in order to include the 

 young and have the surroundings. When 

 capturing the beaver, Mr. Butler also 

 took photographs and gathered the trees, 

 house and foliage used in the group. 



The background of the group, which 

 incidentally portrays a dam and canal, 

 is by Mr. Hobart Nichols, whose skilled 

 brush has provided appropriate settings 

 not only for many of the habitat groups 

 cf birds but also for the equally beautiful 

 groups of amphibians. The 

 locality is a valley in Estes 

 Park, Colorado, looking 

 from the slope of Mount 

 Meeker toward Lily Moun- 

 tain . Here years 

 ago, the busy beav- 

 ers dammed the lit- 

 tle stream convert- 

 ing the valley into a 

 series of ponds and 

 swamps. 



135 



