THE LIFE OF A BEAVER COLONY 105 
of the beavers’ life. Already the female was 
becoming restless, making and remaking the bed 
of shredded wood and grass. She did not appear to 
care for the society of her mate, who kept away 
from her during much of the time. Finally he 
left the lodge, and sought a temporary home in a 
bank burrow, and it was but a few days later that 
in the lodge could be heard the faint whining cry 
of a newly arrived family of three. Three small, 
furry imitations of their parents, about twelve 
inches long and rather greyer in colour than they 
would be later; their ears were very dark and their 
eyes were open from the first day,* and their teeth 
good miniatures of those with which their parents had 
done so much useful work. Occasionally the young 
father came into the lodge, but he seldom stayed 
long, evidently he considered it wise to let the 
mother have the place to herself and young. For 
two weeks she kept them in the dark, warm house, 
nursing and watching over them with the true 
solicitude which is so wonderful and so exquisitely 
unselfish in what we term the lower forms of life. 
Willingly would she have sacrificed her own life if 
occasion demanded. No danger would have been 
considered too great if her offspring were in peril, 
but fortunately they were safe and she only had to 
nurse and caress them while they got their strength. 
* Some authorities claim that the young are blind at birth, but 
the opinion of trappers and others with whom I have spoken is 
that their eyes are open from the first,—A. R. D. 
