{ 
MAMMALIA—BEAVER. 223 
face tapering to the nose, which isa hard gristly substance, well adapted 
for removing the earth when it burrows; each jaw has two cutting teeth, 
long and sharp like those of a kanguroo, with a space of an inch between 
them and the grinders, which are strong and well set. From the structure 
of its teeth, it does not appear to bea carnivorous animal; its eyes are 
small and black; its ears short and pointed. The paws are something hke 
a beaver’s, with which it runs so awkwardly that a man could easily over- 
take it. Its posteriors differ from most other animals by falling down ina 
sloping direction, commencing at the hip joint, and descending to the knee 
joint « the hind legs; its tail is so short that it is scarcely perceivable. 
The general color is a cream brown, intermixed with black hairs. The 
female, like most other animals of New South Wales, is distinguished by a 
pouch or false belly for its young. ‘The flesh is considered by the natives 
as a great luxury. 
ORDER SIX—GLIRES. 
Anmmats of this order have two large incisors in each jaw, separated 
from the molars by a vacant space; no canine teeth; molars with flat 
crowns, or blunt tubercles; extremities, the posterior longest, terminated by 
unguiculated toes, the number varying according. to the species; mamme 
variable in number; stomach simple; intestines very long. 
THE BEAVER. 
Siar 
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‘LHE beaver seems to be now the only remaining monument of that kind 
ei intelligence in brutes, which, though infinitely inferior, as to its princi- 
1 Castor fiber, Lix. The genus Castor has two upper and two lower incisors ; eight upper 
and eight lower molars. Molars composed ofa flat crown, with sinuous and complicated 
ridges of enamel; five toes on each foot, the anterior short and close, the posterior longer 
and palmated ; tail broad, thick, flattened horizontally, of an oval form, naked and cover- 
ed with scales. 
