250 RODENTIA. 



quality, being heavy in the pelt and pale in colour. 

 The Mexican have a glazed appearance on the pelt. 

 The Beaver formerly inhabited England, and it was 

 abundant in Wales at a comparatively recent period. 

 Mr. E. P. Thompson says {Standard, 18th October, 

 1887) that the name of Beverley in Yorkshire appears to 

 have been derived from the Beaver, and in the arms of 

 this town occur three Beavers. Beveraige in Worcester- 

 shire, Bevercotes in Nottinghamshire, Beverstone in 

 Gloucestershire, and Beversbrook in Wiltshh'e are 

 similar names. 



A few Beavers still exist on the PJione in France, a 

 specimen of which is occasionally white, and it is still 

 found, though in very reduced numbers, in Austria, 

 Piussia, Norway, and Prussia. In the winter 1885-86 

 seventeen Beavers were killed in Prussia. Two Beaver 

 colonies have lately been discovered at Amlid near 

 Christiana Sound, w'here it is said to feed on the bark 

 of birch and aspen trees. 



The Beaver has the wonderful power, which no other 

 animal possesses, of felling trees ; this it effects by 

 gnawing through the wood with its powerful chisel-like 

 teeth, and it causes the tree to fall in the direction 

 required l^y gnawing one side lower than the other. 

 They swim with the pieces of wood, and place them in 

 position. They erect dams across a valley, getting a 

 body of water to collect in what would otherwise be 

 small streams, thus forming the fertile Beaver meadows, 

 with the moisture and alluvial soil collected by the dam. 

 The Beaver also causes the water of a lake to rise, by 

 building a dam at the outlet. It only works at night. 

 Beavers erect circular dwellings of logs, mud, and stones, 

 plastered down with mud on the roof, and with an 

 entrance on the water side. Beavers generally live in 



