108 ROMANCE OF THE BEAVER 



an animated but very subdued conversation like 

 the muffled whining of very young babies. 



While still quite small the beaver took to solid 

 food, nibbling the bark from thin, tender twigs, so 

 that the process of weaning was very gradual. 

 During the summer months they spent much of 

 their time outdoors, frequently without their 

 parents ; at the slightest suspicion of danger, they 

 would slap the water with their tails in quaint 

 imitation of their parents. The sound they pro- 

 duced was faint, but still loud enough to arouse 

 the mother, who usually came out to see what 

 threatened her little family and make them seek 

 shelter either in the lodge, a burrow, or more 

 frequently among the thick grass which lined the 

 pond. When they were about two months old 

 they took up their quarters for a time in a large 

 burrow which had been made for the purpose, the 

 lodge being left, probably for the annual spring 

 cleaning, which simply means the destroying of 

 the insect parasites {platypsyllus castoiis), with 

 which the bedding becomes more or less infested, 

 but which is believed to be dependent on the living 

 creature for its own existence. 



Only too quickly the summer passed. The 

 lowering skies and cooler nights foretold the 

 coming of autumn. But the warm, bright weather 

 had served its great purpose. The birds had given 

 to the world a new population to take the place of 

 those that had died or been killed. In the warm 



