352 



BEDEGUAR. 



the principal part of Binny's food, but he was very 

 fond of succulent fruits and roots. He was a most 

 entertaining creature, and some highly comic scenes 

 occurred between the worthy, but slow beaver, and 

 a light and airy macauco that was kept in the same 

 apartment. 



" An animal so sociable in his habits ought to be 

 affectionate, and very affectionate the beaver is said 

 to be. Drage mentions two young ones which were 

 taken alive and brought to a neighbouring factory in 

 Hudson's Bay, where they throve very fast, until 

 one of them was killed accidentally. The survivor 

 instantly felt the loss, began to moan, and abstained 

 from food till it died. Mr. Bullock mentioned to the 

 narrator a similar instance, which fell under his notice 

 in North America. A male and female were kept 

 together in a room, where they lived happily till the 

 male was deprived of his partner by death. For a 

 day or two ne appeared to be hardly aware of his 

 loss, and brought food and laid it before her ; at last, 

 finding that she did not stir, he covered her body 

 with twigs and leaves, and was in a pining state when 

 Mr. Bullock lost sight of him." 



Notwithstanding the length of time that the 

 beavers have been known to commerce, the numbers 

 of them that have been captured, and the long 

 accounts which have been drawn up of the parallel 

 between their clam and hut building, as compared 

 with the same operations in man, there are some parts 

 of their real and proper history which still remain in 

 a great measure undetermined. 



Among these are, the length of gestation in the 

 females, and the season at which the young are 

 brought forth. The general habit of the order is 

 short gestation ; and from the size of cub beavers 

 when brought to this country, and the season at 

 which they have been brought, it is natural to sup- 

 pose that the young are brought forth in the very 

 warmest season of the year. There is another rea- 

 son why that should be the case. Animals in a state 

 of nature, generally produce their offspring, or have 

 them in a very young state, at that season when their 

 proper food is in the greatest abundance. The appa- 

 rent exceptions to this, are in reality no exceptions at 

 all. The bears, which, at first consideration, appear 

 to be the most striking exception, as the females not 

 only bring forth their young in the winter retreats, 

 but suckle them for some time there, not only have 

 an accumulation of fat sufficient for the support 

 of both dam and cubs, till they are able to follow her 

 in ranging, but they come abroad when the "harvest" 

 of the winter's desolation, the ruin occasioned by the 

 storms of winter, is the most abundant and most 

 easily found. 



Winter directly produces no superabundance of 

 food for the rodentia ; nor is it till the season of 

 growth has made some advances, that there is moisture 

 in the bark. When, in the latter part of the year, the 

 cambium ripens, the bark is dry, until the leaves are 

 so far developed that their action commences. This 

 may be one reason why beavers cut their winter 

 provision before the bark has attained its most 

 saploss state, and it is also a reason why the whole 

 period of gestation in the rodentia is thrown into the 

 spring season, and their bringing forth into the latter 

 part of the spring or the autumn. 



In the absence of certain information, we cannot, of 

 course, speak positively, but the probability is, that 

 beavers, to a considerable extent, follow the law of 



shore birds, which congregate in winter, and disperse 

 against the pairing time. The period of their gesta- 

 tion is, of course, longer than that of the incubation 

 of birds ; and that carries the time of their bringing 

 forth, nearly to that season at which the young twigs 

 are in the fulness of their growth, so that when the 

 cubs begin to seek their own food, they find it in the 

 greatest abundance and perfection. 



This is rendered probable, nay certain, by the im- 

 mature state of the cub beavers during the prime of 

 the hunting season, which is the latter part of the 

 winter ; and it is confirmed by the stage of growth at 

 which they have been imported to this country, as 

 established by the case of the individual of which we 

 have quoted the account. 



Though beavers, and indeed most of the class of 

 animals to which they belong, are easily tamed, they 

 are, when brought alive to this country, sometime's 

 subjected to the wantonly cruel operation of blinding. 

 This is said to be done with a view of keeping them 

 from the water, into which, if they once escape, they 

 do not readily return to the state in which they pre- 

 viously are. 



Those which are at the Zoological Gardens have 

 been nearly blinded, though one of them still pos- 

 sesses the sight of one eye, at least partially. They 

 are provided with water and a house, and also with 

 food, so that they can only indicate their natural pro- 

 pensities ; and the loss of the eyes makes those indica- 

 tions very imperfect. Still they show the building pro- 

 pensity ; and at the season when beavers, in a state 

 of nature, construct or repair their habitations, these 

 not only ca:ry sticks which are thrown into the water 

 for that purpose, but carefully inspect their artificial 

 house, fetching clay and mud from the bottom of the 

 pond, and plastering every crevice so carefully over 

 as to render their habitation not only weather-proof, 

 but air-proof at all places except the entrances. 



It is to be regretted that these, the most accessible 

 to the public of any specimens of this interesting 

 species to be met with in the country, have been 

 blinded, because that must necessarily prevent the 

 display of some of their habits, though fewer of them, 

 perhaps, than in most animals, as beavers perform 

 their most curious labours during the night. It were 

 to be wished that some of the proprietors of land 

 who have large parks intersected by such streams, or 

 containing such sheets of water, as beavers frequent 

 in a state of nature, would establish beaver preserves. 

 The creatures would be highly curious and orna- 

 mental ; their flesh, if fed upon succulent plants, 

 would probably be found more nutritious than that of 

 hares, and their fur is certainly far more valuable. 

 Now it should seem that, even as a matter of economy, 

 it would be much wiser to give up a few acres of osier- 

 holt along the margin of the waters to a colony of 

 beavers than to keep preserves of hares and phea- 

 sants, which animals plunder the crops for miles 

 round. 



BEDEGUAR. An excrescence frequently found 

 growing upon various species of roses ; especially of 

 the wild kinds, of a fine green or pink colour, and 

 covered with branched hairs. This excrescence is a 

 species of gall, caused by the deposition of the eggs 

 of a small fly, belonging to the genus Cynips of Lin- 

 naeus, in the substance of the twig, and when opened 

 is found to contain the grubs or pupae, in consider- 

 able numbers, of the fly. It is perhaps one of the 

 most singular circumstances in the economy of the 



