CHAPTER IV. 



The Order Rodentia — Its Distribution — Modern American Repre- 

 sentatives — Fiber Zibethicus, the Musk Beaver — The Coypu, or 

 South American Beaver — The Capybara or Water-hog — The 

 Canadian Beaver, the Type Rodent — Its Specific Characters — 

 Notable Varieties. 



The gnawing animals — the Order Rodentia or Glires — are unmis- 

 takably characterized by their dentition, a form most familiar, which 

 is thus technically described : 



" Incisor teeth, two in each jaw, very large, with sharp cutting 

 chisel-shaped edges, fitted for gnawing. No canine teeth, but a 

 wide space between the incisors and the molars." 



From the character of the teeth, we learn the nature of the food 

 the animal is best provided to consume, and in the case of the 

 Rodents the natural diet is the harder vegetable substances — stalks, 

 roots, seeds and fruits. Representatives of the order are found in 

 all parts of the world, but America contains nearly as many species 

 as all the rest of the world put together. Thus America may appro- 

 priately be called the home of the Rodentia, for not only has it 

 the numerical advantage, but the four representatives selected for 

 treatment in this chapter — the musquash, coypu, capybara and 

 beaver, all American species — are the largest and most valuable of 

 the Order. 



The Musk beaver, or Musquash of the Indians, though the 

 smallest of the four, and less than one-fourth the size of the Cana- 

 dian beaver, is second only to it, in commercial importance and 

 historic lore. The musquash is the sole representative of the Genus 



