NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 79 



ADMIRALTY BEAVER 



CASTOR CANADENSIS PHAEUS Heller 



Castor canadensis phaeus Heller, Univ. California Publ. Zool., vol. 5, p. 250, Feb. 18, 



1909 (Pleasant Bay, Admiralty Island, Alaska). 

 FIG.: Taylor, 1916, p. 431, fig. c (tail outline). 



The beaver of Admiralty Island was at first believed to be a 

 very dark race, but Taylor (1916) shows that of six specimens 

 from Admiralty Island two are hardly different in color from 

 two New Brunswick examples of typical canadensis, although 

 others are very dark. The type is described as having the long 

 hair of the upper parts almost black, with a slight chestnut 

 tint at the tips; shoulders deep russet, lightening to chestnut- 

 brown on the head ; underfur very dark seal brown or blackish ; 

 ears black. On the under side, the longer hairs are seal brown, 

 becoming slightly reddish at the base of the tail. The ratio of 

 length to width of tail is even greater than in the southern 

 broad-tailed beaver, frondator, but the widest part is located 

 more proximally. The skull is chiefly notable for its narrower 

 interorbital region, longer and narrower nasals, broader fora- 

 men magnum, and longer tooth row as compared with typical 

 canadensis. 



This is an island race of beaver, hitherto known only from 

 Admiralty Island, Alaska, although probably it was present 

 also at one time on some of the adjacent islands. Heller re- 

 garded a specimen from Prince of Wales Island as intermediate 

 toward the race pacificus of the mainland to the south. He 

 quotes Dixon that there were said to be no beavers on any of 

 the islands between Sitka and Juneau, so that their discovery 

 on Admiralty Island was of particular interest. Here they 

 lived in the lakes, which with their irregular shore line and 

 quiet little bays made an ideal home. They were seldom 

 disturbed, although at intervals Indians from the mainland 

 would come over and take a few. Their main food supply was 

 found to be spruce bark, although that of willow where obtain- 

 able was preferred. Four miles to the south of Wide Harbor 

 it was reported that beavers had been lately exterminated. 

 On the adjacent Chichagof Island, some old and dilapidated 

 beaver dams were found, but the beavers seemed to have been 

 cleared out. Presumably they were of this race. 



Concerning the status of the beaver on Admiralty Island in 



