THE BEAVERS OF NORTH AMERICA 69 



In certain ways, the beaver is a low order of 

 animal, if our method of determining intelligence 

 by the convolutions of the brain is correct, yet he 

 contradicts our decisions by doing work which is 

 so clearly the result of reasoning power. It is all 

 very well to say as Bennett did that '' the intelli- 

 gence of a beaver is recognised as nothing more 

 than a remarkable instinct exerted upon one par- 

 ticular object, and upon that alone. In all respects, 

 except as regards the skill with which he constructs 

 his winter habitation, and the kind of combination 

 into which he enters with his fellows for carrying 

 their common purpose into effect, his intelligence is 

 of the most limited description." Is this altogether 

 fair ? Are we to judge an animal by what he is or 

 by what he does ? I do not know whether Mr. 

 Bennett ever visited the beaver in their wild state 

 or simply obtained his information from the Zoo- 

 logical Gardens. The former seems scarcely possible 

 or he would never have stated the two exceptions 

 to the beavers' limited intelligence. The mere fact 

 that animals work together does not prove any 

 particular intelligence. Many of the lowest forms 

 of animal life do that. Neither is the building of 

 the winter habitation a work comparable with 

 much that the beaver does as a proof of intelligence. 

 It has often been cited against the beaver by those 

 wishing to prove the animal's mental inferiority 

 that when in captivity they do what are apparently 

 senseless things, such as the cutting of chair-legs 



