Sept. 5?, 1888.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



183 



when sportsmen are to take their meals, arid he generally 

 waits their time to quit, or to begin, for that matter. 



But it had now become so late that he felt impelled to get 

 into his canoe and go in search of them. He was not long 

 in coming at the secret of this long delay. He had not 

 proceeded far when the mingled noise of splashing oars 

 and angry voices sainted his ears. "What s the matter, 

 there V" he exclaimed, coming within hailing distance. 

 "Why, this confounded boat won't budge an inch. We 

 have pulled at the oars the past two hours, and haven't 

 made half a mile, and now we are dead stuck and she 

 won't stir a peg." The guide, who by this time had 

 guessed the difficulty, but who was disposed to prolong 

 the amusement for his own special benefit for a little, 

 suggested perhaps they might have run on a rock or sand 

 bar. "Oh, no. nothing of the sort; we put the oars down 

 the whole length, and there is no bottom for ten feet. 

 I say, what is the matter with this contemptible boat?" 

 "You haven't caught so many fish or shipped so much 

 water you've weighted the thing too low in the water, or 

 run afoul of some sea monster which is fastened to your 

 bottom?" he mildly suggested. But as they were in no 

 mood to be trifled with, he hastily drew in their anchor, 

 which had been dragging all the while they had been 

 fishing, and subsequently made the mild remark that he 

 usually hauled it aboard when he was not fishing. 



Somers, Conn. C. H. Gr. 



THE SEWELLELS, THE BEAVERS, AND 

 THE MURID/E, 



BY R. W. SHUFELDT, M.D., C.M.Z.S., ETC. 



FOLLOWING the family Seinridce, the leading family 

 of the order Rodeiitia, as arranged by our Pro- 

 visional "List" of the U, S. National Museum, we come 

 next in that order to the family Haplodontida', a group 

 created to contain the sewellels. By turning to my 

 attiolfi on the "TJ. S. Eodentia," published in a former 

 number, it will be observed there that the Haplodontidce 

 includes but one genus, the genus Haplodon, and it is 



this animal we have in pur fauna is distinct from the 

 form of it which is still to be taken in some parts of 

 northern Europe and Asia, but I am incliued to think 

 that the weight of opinion is in favor of their being the 

 same. The great commercial importance of the beaver, 

 its unusually interesting habits and its wide distribution, 

 have forced this animal upon the attention of all kinds 

 and classes of observers, so that its bibliography is quite 

 extensive. Few animals have been better and more 

 thoroughly written up than this illustrious rodent. From 

 the days of Herodotus, Pliny and Aristotle, all of whom 

 noticed, it in their writings, down to the present time, 

 the works and genius of the beaver have furnished an 

 ever-fresh theme for the pens of animal biographers. 

 Castor is without canine teeth, and its dental apparatus 

 otherwise presents the very acme of development of the 

 gnawer's tool chest; while its exquisite pelt, its webbed 

 hindfeet, and above all its unique tail are sufficiently 

 well known to obviate the necessity of my dwelling upon 

 them here. 



Upon numerous occasions I have had the opportunity 

 of watching beavers as they plied their work on the rivers 

 and smaller creeks in various localities in the West. I 

 have watched them upon moonlight nights as they girdled 

 both trees and saplings to construct their notorious dams 

 and dome-shaped aquatic habitations. For this purpose 

 they would choose trees all the way from an inch to 

 seven or eight inches in diameter, and as most of the trees 

 I observed them at work upon were soft cottonwoods, it 

 was truly marvellous to see how rapidly they felled them 

 and afterward fitted them to their use. It's a weird and 

 never-to-be-forgotten sight for the one who has ever wit- 

 nessed it. The very stillness of a moonlight night on the 

 prairies is of itself impressive, and add to this the almost 

 silent labors of the toiling creatures before you, the scene 

 indeed becomes a rare one. On such occasions the com- 

 bination of sounds which fall upon your ear are in the 

 highest degree pleasurable; you distinctly hear the con- 

 stant murmur of the flowing creek, the drip, drip, of the 

 water over the dam, the ceaseless gnawing made by these 

 invincible builders, the almost inaudible ripple of one as 

 he swims by you in the still waters of the dam, or the pat 

 of his tail on the surface as he dives therein. Finally 

 your senses are kept on the alert by the momentarv ex- 



too varied to enumerate. A year or two ago I had a pet 

 Ncotnma, which amused himself in much the same man- 

 ner in my dining room, and in the course of one night 

 barricaded himself up under the sideboard in a most 

 marvelous manner, absolutely stripping the apartment of 

 every small article he was able to carry or push along to 

 the place he had chosen. 



Beavers commence cutting their wood in early summer, 

 and set to construct their dams and houses about the 

 close of August, but never finish them until severe frosts 

 set in, so the mud will freeze and render the entire struct- 

 ures solid and impervious to the entrance of the Carni- 

 vora that prey upon them, as wolves and wolverines. 



Formerly in this country beavers were to be found upon 

 all suitable streams from New York to California and 

 Maine to Mexico, but the ceaseless war of trade is rapidly 

 exterminating the species, and in a few more generations 

 this interesting and highly valuable animal will pass over 

 to the long list of mammalian names which means with 

 us — natural products either ruthlessly wasted, as in 

 the case of the buffalo, or no proper provision taken to 

 protect and propagate them to the welfare of the nation's 

 futurity. 



Following the Casforidut our "List" next presents us 

 with the family Mh ridce, in chiding all such forms as musk- 

 rats, lemmings, field mice and wood rats. 



Our numerous array of species in this group leads off 

 with the almost universally known muskrat, the Fiber 

 zibetliieus, and how the very mention of his name and 

 suggestion of his form summon up in our minds the 

 thoughts of a hundred and more moonlight or lantern- 

 lit hunts for him; or else the early morning visits to the 

 steel traps we have placed along the water ways of his 

 haunts. 



Hundreds of thousands of the pelts of this animal are 

 annually taken in by the fur traders, and were it not 

 that the species is so prolific, it having fifteen or sixteen 

 young as a rule each season , brought forth in three lit- 

 ters, it would surely be exterminated. It seems to hold 

 its own, however, and is still numerous in many regions 

 in the Eastern districts. Like the beaver, it also has a 

 musky odor, but to me by no meaus a disagreeable one; 

 it, too, as we well know, builds in the winter its habi- 

 tations of mud and weeds, which have a dry chamber 



Fig. la BEAVERS AT WORK. Drawn by Dr. Shufeldt, from one of his field sketches. 



represented but by two species, H. ruf ua and H. major, 

 the sewellels of the Pacific Coast and northern California. 

 Personally I have never enjoyed studying the sewellel in 

 its native haunts, and know the animal only from 

 museum skins and mounted specimens studied by me 

 on former occasions, and even these, at the present 

 writing, are not available for inspection, I had looked 

 forward to illustrating my article with a good figure of 

 this animal, and that pleasure is denied me, but it may 

 be realized some time in the future. Yet, just now I 

 have before me two small wood cuts representing the 

 sewellel; one of these is in Prof. Packard's Zoology, 

 being copied from the American Naturalist, while the 

 second one is evidently intended to be a trustworthy 

 portraiture, and is in Goodrich's Natural History. Upon 

 comparing these two figures, however, I fail to detect 

 the slightest resemblance between them, and I am of 

 the opinion we stand much in need of a correct figure 

 illustrating this animal; I do not recall, at the present 

 time, any such cut. 



Prof. Flower says that the habits of the sewellel are 

 similar to those of the prarie dog; while Prof. Packard 

 remarks that the animal "is nearly as large as a muskrat, 

 is nocturnal in its habits, and, therefore, rarely seen, and 

 burrows in the earth, feeding on roots." Still another 

 authority before me observes that it digs burrows, and is 

 found "living in small societies in the neighborhood of the 

 Columbia River, and abundant near the Great Falls. It 

 is about the size of the gray rabbit, being 14in. long, with 

 a tail half an inch long. It is of a reddish brown color, and 

 has no cheek pouches; the eye is small, and the fur thick 

 and soft, resembling that of the musquash. The skins 

 are much used by the Indians for robes. It feeds on veg- 

 etables, and is said occasionally to climb trees, but only 

 for a short distance, as is the case with the woodchuck. 

 It produces four or five young at a birth." 



It seems to me that it would be a very good idea to col- 

 lect together all we know at present relative to the habits 

 and natural history of the sewellel and illustrate the 

 account with correct dra wings of adult specimens and 

 young, and complete it with a thorough review of it3 

 anatomy. Even some of our best known mammals, yes, 

 those of the Eastern districts, stand in need of such treat- 

 ment and revision, and their natural history requires a 

 deal to be added to it, before we can say that our knowl- 

 edge in such matters is in any way complete. 



We next pass to the consideration of the family 

 Castoridm, which also includes but one genus and one 

 species, Castor fiber, the beaver of North America. 

 There are authorities who maintain that the species of 



pectation of seeing some tree or sapling slowly pass in its 

 fall from the vertical to the horizontal with apparently 

 far less disturbance than when it succumbs to the axe of 

 the woodman. 



From tip to tip a large, fulLgrown beaver will measure 

 a yard and a half, or rather less, and in their best ele- 

 ment, the water, they are notably active and graceful in 

 all their movements, while on the land their gait is wad- 

 dling and clumsy. Their bite, as we may imagine, is 

 unusually severe, and I once saw a young Sioux Indian 

 pick up a large wounded beaver by the hair of his hinder 

 parts, when the animal, as quick as a flash, turned and 

 bit him through and through the hand in several places, 

 inflicting wounds that took a month to heal. During the 

 pairing season, beavers give vent to a peculiar call, and 

 they have from six to seven at a litter, the young being 

 born open-eyed, and remain with then - mothers for the 

 best part of two years. Usually and in nature these ani- 

 mals feed upon the bark of trees and pond lily roots; 

 sometimes on certain plants and berries, but when domes- 

 ticated, and they make wonderfully interesting pets, they 

 are omnivorous, as is the case with most rodents. As is 

 w^ell known, there is a class among beavers dubbed the 

 "old bachelors," who burrow 7 in the banks, never build, 

 and are generally ignored by the rest of the industrious 

 community; and equally is it well known that this ani- 

 mal possesses a special pair of glands, from which the 

 Castoreum is obtained, a substance much in vogue sev- 

 eral years ago as a drug for certain diseases, but now, as 

 in the case of so many substances senselessly used to com- 

 bat diseases, largely "gone out of fashion." 



Roasted beaver tail' is considered a great delicacy in 

 many parts of the country, and even the animal itself is 

 eaten with great relish roasted whole in its skin; but for 

 my own part I have never been hungry enough on occa- 

 sions when I have been present where it was served to 

 make a meal of it; it tastes something like pork, but is a 

 strong and powerful food. That kind of venison is un- 

 suited to my palate, unless starvation lingers in the near 

 neighborhood. 



To describe how beavers build their habitations and 

 dams would occupy more space here than would be war- 

 ranted, the more especially as every reading child in the 

 country is familiar with the feat. I have before me an 

 exceedingly interesting account of a beaver which was 

 kept in confinement by a gentleman many years ago in 

 London; he tells how the animal constructed a would-be 

 dam in his library, using every kind of imaginable light 

 article about the room to effect the purpose, such as 

 books, dust-brush, sticks, clothing, paper, and a long list 



above, with the entrance to it under water. Muskrats 

 in certain localities also riddle the banks of the marshes 

 and sluggish streams where they live, with branching- 

 burrows. These latter are their summer houses and 

 where in the spring the females breed their young. 

 Muskrats are vegetable feeders, but they also eat mus- 

 sels (Unios), leaving the shells in notable heaps in such 

 situations as they find them to live upon, and collect. 

 They will also devour each other, should one of their 

 number by any chance be wounded; and in confinement 

 they wdl feed' upon almost anything that you may offer 

 them. 



A number of years ago, while I was hunting muskrats 

 in a marsh on Long Island Sound, there being several 

 feet of snow on the ground, I chanced to get myself in 

 between one of these animals and his burrow, which hap- 

 pened to be the only means, beyond his running away 

 from me, that presented itself for his escape. He took in 

 the situation at a glance, and I was curious to see what 

 he would do about it. Imagine my surprise when he 

 started to come down for me as fast as his legs could carry 

 him, and in a, few moments he was too close for me to 

 shoot without tearing his beautiful pelt all to shreds, for 

 I at once saw that he was an unusually handsome speci- 

 men, and to thus spoil him would be a great shame. 

 When within about a yard of me, and his eyes actually 

 flashing otit their meaning at his thus being cornered, he, 

 without a moment's hesitation, made a spring at me and 

 landed on the top of one of my leather shooting boots, a 

 pair that came above my knees: in an instant he com- 

 menced tearing away with his teeth at a great rate, but 

 before he had bitten anything but my boot I grabbed him 

 at the back of his neck', and between throttling him and 

 bumping his head against the heel of my gun, he was 

 rendered lifeless. This formed the only case of a musk- 

 rat attacking a man that has ever cometo me, and in this 

 particular instance I adinired the little brute's bravery all 

 the more after I found that he possessed but three legs, 

 one of them having long since been amputated high up, 



Erobably in a steel trap, but the stump was perfect, and 

 e had the blackest hair of any muskrat I ever saw. 

 Only a few years ago, an entirely distinct genus and 

 species of muskrat (Neojlber allerti) was discovered in 

 Florida, the animal being described by Mr. Time in the 

 Smithsonian Report for 1884 (Part II). It is not more 

 than one-half the size of the common muskrat, and 

 among many distinctive structural differences between 

 it and the latter animal, is its possessing a round tail in- 

 stead of a laterally flattened one, as in F. zibethiciis. So 

 far as I at present know, but one single specimen of this 



