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A Notice of the Beaver, from Observations made on Two 

 Living Specimens at present in this Couniry. 



1 he' arrival of two beavers at the Garden of the Zoological 

 Society, (of which I am a member), has afforded me an oppor- 

 tunity of paying some little attention to the habits and structure 

 of these interesting animals. 



On a visit to the garden during the very hard frost which oc- 

 curred in the latter part of last January, I happened to find the 

 keeper busily occupied in clearing away a quantity of mud 

 from the door of the beavers' house. On inquiry, I discovered, 

 that the industrious animals, finding themselves inconvenienced 

 by the cold air forcing its way through the key-hole and chinks 

 of the door, had employed themselves in stopping up all the 

 interstices on the outside, so that it was only after some consi- 

 derable trouble that the keeper was enabled to turn the key in 

 the lock. Being on the spot a few days after, I was amused 

 to perceive that the beavers, nothing discouraged by the demo- 

 lition of their architectural labours in the first instance, had 

 again set to work, and covered the whole surface of the door 

 with a thick coating of plaster, which had been hardened by the 

 frost into a solid cement. Though these outworks were repeat- 

 edly destroyed, the creatures continued with undiminished per- 

 severance to fortify their dwelling against the cold, and so late 

 as the month of March I found the doors completely blocked 

 up. Indeed those who had the charge of them, found it an un- 

 profitable labour to persist in clearing away the accumulated 

 mud, as no sooner was a portion removed, than the breach was 

 instantly repaired anew. The habitation allotted to the bea- 

 vers is a low oven-shaped hut, divided into two apartments, with 

 a view that the two individuals might live apart. They have, 

 however, preferred dwelling together, in one of the divisions of 

 the building, and they seem to have been influenced in their 

 choice, from finding that two of the entrances to it were sup- 

 plied with doors, and therefore that less labour would be re- 

 quired in rendering it fit for their occupation. The other 

 side, which has two inclosed entrances, is turned by them into a 

 store-house ; they convey thither the supplies of wood and bark 



