170 



CASTOROLOGIA. 



facts seem utterl}- overlooked that the beaver is not yet domesticated 

 and that innumerable attempts in America and Europe have proved 

 failures. To be sure, if the beaver is not too closely hunted it will 

 live the longer in any locality, but the question is only one of a few 

 years at most, and before this century closes we may find the last 

 survivors within a railed enclosure of some zoological garden, at- 

 tracting the attention of the populace. 



Unfortunately the beaver does not make a very attractive exhibit, 

 for though its works even in a small enclosure are very wonderful, 

 its nocturnal habits disappoint the masses who naturally expect to 

 find it at least cutting down trees, if not building lodges and dams 

 for the public edification. In close captivity the animals soon be- 

 come tame, and their nature and condition change as the conse- 

 quence of the sudden alterations — loss of exercise, monotony of 

 surroundings, and entire novelty in diet. They seldom are seen ex- 

 cept towards the dusk of evening, when they come out for food, and 

 even the older specimens are comparatively shy. Indian corn is a 

 staple food in many zoological gardens, but cabbage, carrots, and in 

 fact almost the whole range of culinary vegetables are greedily de- 

 voured by the captive beavers. Gradually the lustre of the fur dis- 

 appears, the teeth lose their keen edge and the energy flags, till the 

 industrious aquatic engineer of popular conception becomes a merely 

 animated specimen apparently waiting admission to the ''atelier " of 

 the anatomist. 



\\'^^^-/^-"^'^^''^ 



'no person allowed within the beaver enclosure.' 



