ORDER RODENTIA: RODENTS 191 



formula, the structure of the teeth, the relative size of the radius and 

 ulna, and the very short tarsus and metatarsus being peculiar to 

 the genus and unlike anything in the rest of the family" (Lyon, 1904, 

 p. 430). 



In the original description Stone (1900, p. 460) records two speci- 

 mens. 



Thomas (1906a, p. 357) records a specimen from "Oshima, Oki- 

 nawa, Liu-Kiu Is.," and adds: "Another specimen is now living in 

 the Duke of Bedford's menagerie at Woburn." 



"The distribution of this species ... is restricted to the Islands 

 of Amami-Oshima and Tokuno-shima in the Loochoo archipelago 

 where it is endemic" (Kaburaki, 1934, p. 4183) . 



"Number is unknown, but as it is carefully protected as one of the 

 'Natural Monuments/ by the Law for Preserving Scenery, Historic 

 and Natural Monuments, and it is also strictly prohibited to capture 

 the species without special permission, and besides it is forbidden 

 by the game law, it will never become extinct" (Nagamichi Kuroda, 

 in litt., July 5, 1938) . 



Family CASTORIDAE: Beavers 



The single genus of this family is repres'ented by one species 

 (Castor canadensis) , with 20 subspecies, in North America, and by 

 another species (fiber) , with perhaps four subspecies, in Europe and 

 northern Asia. All the American forms have been treated by Dr. 

 Allen in the preceding volume (1942), and an account of Castor 

 fiber and its subspecies follows here. It is primarily the demands 

 of the fur trade that have brought about trie deterioration in the 

 status of the Beavers. 



European Beaver. Castor; Bievre (Fr.) Biber (Ger.) 



CASTOR FIBER Linnaeus 



[Castor] fiber Linnaeus, Syst. Nat., ed. 10, vol. 1, p. 58, 1758. (Sweden.) 

 FIGS.: Geoffrey and Cuvier, Hist. Nat. Mamm., vol. 6, pi. '275, 1824; Brandt 

 and Ratzeburg, 1829, pi. 3; Blasius, 1857, p. 403, fig. 224; Royal Nat. Hist., 

 vol. 3, p. 97, pi., 1894-95; Collett, 1898, pi. 12; Martin, 1910, pi. 10; 

 Didier and Rode, 1935, p. 188, fig. 98. 



While treated here as a specific unit, Castor fiber has been divided 

 into a number of forms, including the following which are con- 

 sidered by Kuntze (1935, p. 64) to be more or less tenable: 



C. /. fiber Linnaeus (Sweden) ; 



C. f. vistulanus Matschie (western Poland) ; 



C. /. albicus Matschie (Dessau, Anhalt, Germany) ; and 



C. /. galliae Geoffrey (the Rhone, France). 



