The Zoologist — January, 1870. 1957 



the bark off. The houses are generally about four feet in height, and 

 about six in diameter on the outside, and would hold about four 

 beavers, though I have known small houses to hold two only. * * 

 * * The beaver also burrows into the banks of streams, always 

 taking care to have two entrances, one under (or close to) the water, 

 and a smaller air-hole on land." 



Mr. Brown says : — " The house has two flats : the bottom one is on 

 a level with the water; the top one is used to sleep in, and has 

 communication with the water through the bottom. The top one has 

 direct communication with the land. * * * * In regard to the 

 beavers' houses, I am forced to come to the conclusion either that 

 travellers who have written regarding the beaver in the country east 

 of the Hocky Mountains have woefully taken advantage of a traveller's 

 license, have listened to mere hearsay wonders without seeing for 

 themselves, or that the habits of the beaver differ much in different 

 parts of the country. 



" It is only after they have been pointed out to you that the * houses ' 

 can be recognized, as they seem like loose bundles of sticks lying on 

 the water.* In a recent account of the beaver in the British provinces 

 in North America by an anonymous writer,! the houses are described 

 as being exactly the same as I have seen them in the West, and not 

 plastered domes. * * * * Sometimes they live in merely a 

 tunnel or cave. In winter the Indians go along the edge of the ice, 

 sounding with a stick; and wherever there is the opening of one of 

 these tunnels, the sound being different, he watches and plugs up the 

 opening." 



The beaver houses with which I was familiar in Newfoundland, and 

 which, at certain seasons of the year, I saw almost daily, were built as 

 Mr. Green described them, but in many cases of very much larger 

 dimensions. Some winter houses I have known to be twelve or even 

 fourteen feet in diameter (outside measure), and at least six or seven 

 feet high. The inside diameter was probably not more than five or 

 six feet, so solid are the walls and roof, although no mud is visible 

 from the outside. These large houses often hold from eight to twelve, 

 or even, though rarely, sixteen beavers. Beavers usually have two 

 houses: a summer house and winter house: the former is generally 

 situated near the mouth of the brook, as the food of the beavers 



* .Mr. Biuwn says in a foot-note that "the 'house' in the Zoological Gardens, 

 London, corresponds with this description.'' 

 t ' Land and Water,' March, tStiS. 



