THE BEAVERS OF NORTH AMERICA 69 
In certain ways, the beaver is a low order of 
animal, if our method of determining intelligence 
by the convolutions of the brain is correct, yet he 
contradicts our decisions by doing work which is 
so clearly the result of reasoning power. It is all 
very well to say as Bennett did that “ the intelli- 
gence of a beaver is recognised as nothing more 
than a remarkable instinct exerted upon one par- 
ticular object, and upon that alone. In all respects, 
except as regards the skill with which he constructs 
his winter habitation, and the kind of combination 
into which he enters with his fellows for carrying 
their common purpose into effect, his intelligence is 
of the most limited description.” Is this altogether 
fair? Are we to judge an animal by what he is or 
by what he does? I do not know whether Mr. 
Bennett ever visited the beaver in their wild state 
or simply obtained his information from the Zoo- 
logical Gardens. The former seems scarcely possible 
or he would never have stated the two exceptions 
to the beavers’ limited intelligence. The mere fact 
that animals work together does not prove any 
particular intelligence. Many of the lowest forms 
of animal life do that. Neither is the building of 
the winter habitation a work comparable with 
much that the beaver does as a proof of intelligence. 
It has often been cited against the beaver by those 
wishing to prove the animal’s mental inferiority 
that when in captivity they do what are apparently 
senseless things, such as the cutting of chair-legs 
