The Builders. 97 



place and time. The other beavers drive him away 

 because all gregarious animals and birds have a 

 strong fear and dislike of any irregularity in their 

 kind. Even when the peculiarity is slight — a wound, 

 or a deformity — they drive the poor victim from their 

 midst remorselessly. It is a cruel instinct, but part 

 of one of the oldest in creation, the instinct which 

 preserves the species. This explains why the bank 

 beaver never finds a mate ; none of the beavers will 

 have anything to do with him. 



This occasional lack of instinct is not peculiar to 

 the beavers. Now and then a bird is hatched here 

 in the North that has no impulse to migrate. He 

 cries after his departing comrades, but never follows. 

 So he remains and is lost in the storms of winter. 



There are few creatures in the wilderness more 

 difificult to observe than the beavers, both on account 

 of their extreme shyness and because they work only 

 by night. The best way to get a glimpse of them at 

 work is to make a break in their clam and pull the 

 top from one of their houses some autumn afternoon, 

 at the time of full moon. Just before twilight you 

 must steal back and hide some distance from the 

 dam. Even then the chances are against you, for 

 the beavers are suspicious, keen of ear and nose, and 

 generally refuse to show themselves till after the 

 moon sets or you have gone away. You may have 



