I Bo NATURE STUDY, 
was at once made. Curiously enough, the new star ap¬ 
peared on the plates for February 2, 6, 8, 18 and 19 ; so 
the Harvard camera was after all the real discoverer. 
Binny’s Instinct- 
REAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURARIST. 
It has been asserted, and in some degree proved, that the 
song of birds depends on that which they first hear; but 
their nest-making appears to be the result of innate in¬ 
stinct. Binny must have been captured too young to have 
seen any of the building operations of his parents or their 
co-mates, but his instinct impelled him to go to work un¬ 
der the most unfavorable circumstances; and he busied 
himself as earnestly in constructing a dam, in a room up 
three pair of stairs in London, as if he had been laying his 
foundation in a stream or lake in Upper Canada. 
Bread, and bread and milk and sugar, formed the prin¬ 
cipal part of Binny’s food ; but he was very fond of succu¬ 
lent fruits and roots. Tender twigs, especially of the wil¬ 
low, were greatly to his taste, and he would handle them 
very adroitly, drawing them through his fore-paws, which 
he closed upon them much as a basket-maker would do 
when trying a twig, though less perfectly of course. 
An animal so sociable in his habits ought to be affection¬ 
ate ; and very affectionate the beaver is said to be. Drage 
mentions two young ones, which were taken alive and 
brought to a neighboring factory in Hudson’s Bay, where 
they throve very fast until one of them was killed acciden¬ 
tally. The survivor instantly felt the loss, began to moan, 
and abstained from food till it died. Mr. Bullock men¬ 
tioned to the narrator a similar instance which fell under 
his notice in North America. A male and female were 
kept together in a room, where they lived happily till the 
male was deprived of his partner by death. For a day or 
two he appeared to be hardly aware of his loss, and brought 
food and laid it before her ; at last, finding that she did not 
stir, he covered her body with twigs and leaves, and was 
in a pining state when Mr. Bullock lost sight of him. 
