BEAVERS 



found guilty, condemned, and duly executed on the spot. 

 Respecting the mode of building the dams, many of the 

 old stories are not to be allowed credence in Practical 

 Natural History. The supposed use of the beaver's tail 

 has been freely descanted upon as being the means 

 used for laying the foundation of, and plastering the mud 

 walls. Their tails are not employed by the beavers in the 

 Zoological Gardens to perform those offices ; they, having 

 been carefully watched in many of their most interesting 

 movements, have been observed to use their tails only for 

 swimming, diving, etc., etc., and not, like those spoken of 

 in stories, for the purpose of plastering and smoothing the 

 inner and outer sides of the walls of their dwellings, the 

 fore-feet being found quite sufficient for those duties ; 

 therefore, whatever the beavers of old may have done, the 

 beavers of the present day have advanced in knowledge, 

 and discontinued the use of their tails in building their 

 houses. 



The Marquis of Hamilton (now Duke of Abercom), who 

 took such an active part in the Executive of the Fisheries 

 Exhibition of 1883, before consulting me, wrote to the 

 Marquis of Bute asking for a pair of beavers to exhibit 

 with other animals in the Exhibition grounds. My im- 

 pression, when I heard that the beavers were to be for- 

 warded, was that the Marquis of Hamilton had been under 

 some misapprehension, for it was not an uncommon thing 

 for some people to think that beavers were fish-eating 

 animals. 



As the beavers were announced to be exhibited, and as 

 a suitable place had been prepared for them, I thought the 

 matter would pass over without comment. During the 

 time the Exhibition was open I was solicited to write a 

 notice of the "living animals outside the building." This 

 I did, and the notice was published in Land and Water, 



97 H 



