NORTH AMERICA AND THE WEST INDIES 83 



and Scott River, Siskiyou County, flowing into the Klamath 

 River, and there is evidence that beavers "were present in the 

 Klamath River above Requa at least during the years 1915, 

 1916, and 1917" and were probably of this race. From the 

 figures given, the approximate population of this beaver in 

 California in 1931 must have been about 120 individuals. 



The range extends into extreme south-central Oregon along 

 the Klamath River drainage to Goose Lake, a region to the 

 east of the Cascade Mountains, and Bailey (1936) believes 

 that the beavers of the Klamath section, Lost River, Sprague 

 River, and the Yamsay Mountains, are also of this form. As 

 late as 1860 beavers were very abundant in this district, 

 There are still a few here, where they seem to be holding their 

 own or even increasing in recent years (Bailey, 1936). 



GOLDEN BEAVER 

 CASTOR CANADENSIS SUBAURATUS Tajlor 



Castor subauratus Taylor, Univ. California Publ. Zool., vol. 10, p. 167, May 21, 1912 

 ("Grayson, Stanislaus County, San Joaquin River, California"). 



FIGS.: Taylor, 1916, fig. H, a, p. 431 (tail outline); fig. J, b, p. 450; fig. K, 6, p. 451; 

 fig. L, 6, p. 452 (skull); Grinnell, Dixon, and Linsdale, 1937, vol. 2, pi. 8 (colored 

 fig. of exterior) . 



Fur with a golden sheen dorsally and ventrally; size largest 

 of the western beavers. Skull with the nasal bones more 

 expanded and foramen magnum wider in proportion to its 

 height than in any other western beaver. The average propor- 

 tion of width of tail to length is about 42 percent, in the race 

 leucodonta about the same, but in frondator greater, nearly half 

 (49.1 percent). The type measured: Total length, 1,171 mm.; 

 scaled part of tail, 320; hind foot, 196. 



This is the beaver of the "lower courses of San Joaquin and 

 Sacramento Rivers and lower portions of larger tributaries of 

 these main rivers" below 1,000 feet altitude in western Cali- 

 fornia. Grinnell (1933) gives its former range as "from Tulare 

 Lake (formerly), Kings County, and from Kings River, near 

 Sanger (formerly), and at Mendota in Fresno County, north 

 to Sacramento River and Butte Creek, north of Marysville 

 Buttes, and at one time to McCloud and upper Sacramento 

 rivers, in Shasta County." In 1912 Taylor wrote that this 

 beaver was then "approaching extinction, although the en- 

 forcement of the present protective law may enable it to 



