THE ZOOLOGIST 



FOR 1870, 



On the Natural History and Hunting of the Beaver (Castor cana- 

 densis, Kuhl) in Newfoundland ; compared with Observations 

 made by Messrs. A. H. Green and Robert Brown, F.R.G.S., on 

 the Pacific Slope of the Rocky Mountains. By Henry Reeks, 

 Esq., F.L.S. 



It was not my intention to have written anything on the natural 

 history of the beaver in Newfoundland until I had arrived at ils 

 proper place in the systematic list of North American mammals ; but 

 I have been induced to do so from having recently read a very 

 interesting paper on this subject by Messrs. Green and Brown, pub- 

 lished in the 'Journal of the Linnean Society' for August, 1869. As 

 the observations of these gentlemen differ in some particulars from my 

 own, and believing that such differences are mainly due to climatic 

 influences, or some other cause best known to the beavers themselves, 

 I shall in nowise criticise their remarks, but merely make extracts and 

 compare them with my own notes and observations, which of course 

 I am bound to believe are equally truthful. 



Of the beaver in winter Mr. Green says, " Some of the beavers 

 become torpid during January, especially those living near lakes, 

 swamps, or large sheets of water which are frozen. They do not lav 

 in a store of sticks for winter use, as stated by Capt. Bonville (Wash- 

 ington Irving's 'Adventures of Capt. Bonville'), as one day's supply 

 of sticks for a single beaver would fill a house, and if a stick were cut 

 in the autumn before the winter was over it would have lost its sap, 

 and would not be eaten by the beaver." Mr. Brown says, " In winter 

 they have a store of food secured at some convenient distance from 

 their abodes. When they require any they start off to get it. They 

 do not eat there, but bring it to their house, and there make their 



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