BEAVER (AS. bcoicr. Ger. Baer, OCh. Slay.
Slat. habil rits, large ichneumon. also 'brown': to this latter root the word may pos sibly ultimately belong). A large aquatic rodent , of the family Castoridte, remarkable for its con structive habits, and yielding a valuable fur and the substance castoreum. The family includes only one species, in the opinion of the majority of naturalists, which is, or has been, distributed throughout most of the forested parts of the North Temperate Zone. To this species Linnaeus gave the name Castor fiber, and the American form has been regarded as merely a variety of it. Recent American specialists, like Rhoads (l'roc. Am, Philos. Soc., 1898), believe, never theless, that the American beaver is specifically different from that of the Old World, is entitled to the name Castor Canadensis, and is divisible into three distinct local races. In general char acteristics all beavers agree so closely, however, that these niceties of classification may be left to the taxonomists.
The Old World Bearer, once widely common throughout Europe and Northern Asia, is now rare and isolated. Extinct in the British Isles since the Twelfth Century, a few colonies are preserved in the parks of the Marquis of Bute and other noblemen. It is said to exist in south eastern Norway, and isolated,pairs are occasion ally seen on sonic of the large German rivers, and in Austria, under protection of great land owners. "They also occur sparingly in Russia and Poland, in the streams of the Ural Moun tains, and in those which flow into the Caspian. They live in burrows on the banks of rivers, like the water-rat, and show little of the architectural instinct so conspicuous in the American form; but this may be owing to unfavorable external conditions rather than to want of the faculty, for there is a well-authentieated instance of a colony of beavers, on a small stream near Magdeburg, whose habitations and dam were exactly similar to those found in America." In Siberia they still exist in considerable numbers, though their pelts do not now figure largely in the export of furs, and there the animal is inclined to erect lodges and dams.
The American Bearer was scattered primi tively over all wooded North America, from Mexico to Labrador and the northwestern limit of tree-growth. It has been banished from all
the more thickly settled parts, but survives in greater or less numbers throughout Canada north of civilized Ontario and Quebec, in the Rocky Mountain and Californian ranges, in the Appalachians south of West Virginia, and along the bowlers of northwestern Mexico. It is steadily decreasing, however, even in the Hud son Bay region. The beaver is usually at least 2 feet in length from the nose to the root of the tail, and weighs about 35 pounds, and the tail is about 10 inches in length. These dimen sions are sometimes exceeded. The general form of the animal is thick and clumsy, broadest at the hips and squirrel-like. The body terminates in a oval tail, flattened transversely, about twice as long as broad, and naked of hairs, the surface being covered with plates of black, indurated skin. resembling horn-scales. The fore limbs are small and squirrel-like, the hinder ones large and powerful. Each foot has 5 toes: those of the fore-feet are short, and not connect ed by a web; those of the hind feet are long, spreading out like the toes of a goose, and webbed to the nails. In accordance with this remarkable peculiarity, the beaver in makes use of the hind feet alone, the fore feet remaining motionless and close to the body. The tail is of service as a sculling-oar and a rudder, and its loud slapping of the water when an alarmed animal dives is an effective signal of danger to others. The head is thick and broad, the nose obtuse, the eyes small, the ears short and rounded. The incisor or cutting teeth (two in each jaw) exhibit in the highest perfec tion this cardinal characteristic of the Roden tia. They are formed in front of hard, orange colored enamel, while the back of the tooth is formed of a softer substance, more easily worn down, so that a sharp, chisel-like edge is always preserved; the bulbs being also persistent, so that the teeth are continually growing as they are 3vorn away. There are four flat molar teeth (01• grinders) on each side in each jaw.