BEAVER. 
367 
Beaver . 
Most remarkable among rodents for instinct and in- 
telligence unquestionably stands the beaver. Indeed, 
there is no animal — not even excepting the ants and bees 
—where instinct has risen to a higher level of far-reaching 
adaptation to certain constant conditions of environment, 
or where faculties, undoubtedly instinctive, are more 
puzzlingly wrought up with faculties no less undoubtedly 
intelligent. So much is this the case that, as we shall 
presently see, it is really impossible by the closest study 
of the pyschology of this animal to distinguish the web of 
instinct from the woof of intelligence ; the two principles 
seem here to have been so intimately w'oven together, that 
in the result, as expressed by certain particular actions, it 
cannot be determined how much we are to attribute to 
mechanical impulse, and how much to reasoned purpose. 
Fortunately, the doubt that for many years shrouded 
the facts has been dispelled by the conscientious and 
laborious observations of the late Mr. Lewis H. Morgan , 1 
whose work throughout displays the judicious accuracy of a 
scientific mind. As this is much the most trustworthy, as 
well as the most exhaustive essay upon the subject, I 
shall mainly rely upon it for my statement of facts, and 
while presenting these I shall endeavour to point out the 
psychological explanation, or difficulty of explanation, to 
which they are severally open. 
The beaver is a social animal, the male living with his 
single female and progeny in a separate burrow or 6 lodge.’ 
Several of these lodges, however, are usually built close 
together, so as to form a beaver colony. The young quit 
the lodge of their parents when they enter upon the 
rummer of their third year, seek mates, and establish new 
lodges for themselves. As each litter numbers three or 
four, and breeding is annual, it follows that a beaver lodge 
never or rarely contains more than twelve individuals, 
while the number usually ranges from four to eight. 
Every season, and particularly when a district becomes 
1 The American Beaver and Ms Works (Lippincott & Co. 1868), 
25 
