BEAVER 
GENERIC CHARACTER. 
Two cutting teeth in each jaw. 
Five toes on each foot ; hind feet webbed. 
Tail compressed, and covered with scales. 
SPECIFIC CHARACTER. 
Castor Fiber. . C. cauda ovata, plana, calva. Linn. Syst. Nat. 
Gmel. 1. p. 124. 
Tail nearly oval, flat, and bare. 
Castor castanei coloris, cauda horizontaliter 
plana. Briss. Quadr. p. 133. 
Common Beaver. Catesb. Carol. App. p. 2g. Sm. Buff. v. 5. 
p. 21. pi. 105. Penn. Hist. Quadr. ed. 3. 
v. 2. p. 114. pi. J\. Penn. Arct. Zool. 
v. 1. p. 98. Bew. Quadr. p. 383. Shaw. 
Gen. Zool. 2. pi. 128. 
Common-sized beavers are about three feet long, 
and twelve or fifteen inches broad. Their skin in 
the northern regions is generally black, but it ' 
brightens into a reddish tincture in temperate cli- 
mates ; and as they advance to the southward the 
beauty of their fur decreases. In the Leverian Mu- 
seum there is one quite white. Among the Illinois 
