FLYING SQUIBBEL 215 



seen partly buried in the snow and minus its head ; some predatory animal 

 was probably responsible. At Smith Creek, Mr. Donald D. McLean once 

 found a Flying Squirrel hanging on a barbed wire fence. It had probably 

 sailed against the wire in the dark and received a mortal wound. 



Golden Beaver. Castor canadensis subauratus Taylor 



Field characters. — Body stout and heavy; head blunt; tail flattened, paddle-like, 

 Bcaly; hind feet webbed; pelage dense, with long over -hair and plush-like underfur. 

 Head and body 24y2 to 31% inches (625-805 nun.), tail liy2 to 16i^ inches (295^20 

 mm.), hind foot 7 to 8 inches (180-205 mm.), ear (from crown) % to 1% inches 

 (23-28 mm.); weight 34 to 50 pounds (15.4-21.8 kilograms). General coloration rich 

 golden brown; tail blackish. Workings: Dams composed of brush and mud, backing 

 up water and forming ponds ; ' houses ' composed of twigs and brush, located at the edges 

 of ponds; gnawings on saplings and tree trunks; holes or burrows about 15 inches in 

 diameter in banks of rivers. 



Occurrence. — Eesident in some numbers along Merced Kiver at Snelling and along 

 Tuolumne Eiver below Lagrange. Inhabits slow-moving streams and sloughs. Nocturnal. 

 Somewhat colonial. 



Under original conditions, before the advent of the white man, the 

 lowland streams of central California were heavily populated by the Golden 

 Beaver, a race of beaver peculiar to the Great Central Valley of California. 

 Trapping, especially in the early part of the nineteenth century, reduced 

 the beaver population almost to the point of extermination. Happily, 

 legislation of more recent years has afforded the animals the fullest sort 

 of legal protection and the prospects for their perpetuation are now bright. 



One of the regions where beavers are still to be found, and in some 

 numbers, is the extreme western end of the Yosemite section, along the 

 lower courses of the Merced and Tuolumne rivers west of the foothills. 

 In fact, in 1920, in the neighborhood of Snelling, permission was granted 

 to certain persons by the State authorities for the trapping of a number 

 of beavers. The animals had become numerous enough to cause some 

 trouble in irrigation. 



The beaver is essentially an aquatic animal. It is to be found only 

 in places where there are considerable and permanent bodies of water 

 together with vegetation suited to the food requirements of the animaL 

 The water serves the beaver as a place of escape in time of danger, and as 

 a highway for travel and for transportation of the pieces of trees which 

 it uses in its many operations. 



The food of the Golden Beaver consists chiefly of young bark of the 

 willow and the cottonwood, the two commonest trees along the rivers. To 

 get at this material, the animal cuts down trees or shrubby growths and 

 cuts off the branches, of which it eats the bark of the terminal, newer parts. 

 The peeled wood and other remaining materials are often used for building 



