Audubon's Mammals/MAMMALS1_3.BIN/dp/0006/00067.txt

Text File | 1992-08-25 | 34KB | 509 lines

$Unique_ID{QAD00067}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{American Beaver     (Beaver)}
$Subject{American Beaver     (Beaver); Castor; Fiber; audio}
$Journal{Quadrupeds of North America:  Volume I}
$Volume{Vol. 1:347-359}
$Genus{Castor}
$Species{Fiber}
$Common_Name{American Beaver}
$Log{
Plate XLVI*00067P1.scf,37260029.aud
Audio*37260029.aud
Genus*00066.txt}

               (C) (P) Library of Natural Sounds 1990-91, 1992,
                              All rights reserved.
       Portions copyright (c) Creative Multimedia Corp., 1990-91, 1992

                       A U D U B O N ' S   M A M M A L S

                    By John James Audubon, F. R. S., &c. &c.

                                      AND

                     The Rev. John Bachman, D. D., &c. &c.

                  -------------------------------------------
                                    VOL.  I.
                        --------------------------------


                              CASTOR FIBER.--LINN.
                               (VAR. AMERICANUS.)
                              [Castor canadensis]

                                AMERICAN BEAVER.
                                    [Beaver]

                                  PLATE XLVI.


     C. Arct. monace major, supra badius, infra dilutior; cauda plana, ovata,
squamosa.


                                  CHARACTERS.

     Larger than the ground-hog, (Arctomys monax;) of a reddish-brown colour,
with a short downy grayish fur beneath; tail, flat, scaly, and oval.


                                   SYNONYMES.

     CASTOR FIBER, Linn., 12th ed., p. 78.
     CASTOR, Sagard Theodat, Canada, p. 767.
     BEAVER, CASTOR, Pennant, Arc. Zool., vol. i., p. 98.
     CASTOR ORDINAIRE, Desm., Mamm.
     CASTOR AMERICANUS, F. Cuvier.
     CASTOR FIBER, Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, vol. i.
     THE BEAVER, Hearne's Journal, vol. viii., p. 245.
     BEAVER, Cartwright's Journal, vol. i., p. 62.
     BEAVER, Catesby, App., p. 29.
     CASTOR FIBER, Harlan, Fauna, p. 122.
     CASTOR FIBER, Godman, vol. ii., p. 21.
     CASTOR FIBER, AMERICANUS, Richardson, F.B.A., p. 105.
     CASTOR FIBER, Emmons, Mass. Reports, p. 51.
     CASTOR FIBER, Dekay, pl. 1, p. 72.


                                  DESCRIPTION.

     The shape of the body bears a considerable resemblance to that of the
musk-rat; it is, however, much larger, and the head is proportionally thicker
and broader.  It is thick and clumsy, gradually enlarging from the head to the
hips, and then is somewhat abruptly rounded off to the root of the tail.
     Nose, obtuse and divided; eyes, small; ears, short, rounded, well clothed
with fur, and partially concealed by the longer surrounding hairs; moustaches,
not numerous, but very rigid like hogs' bristles, reaching to the ears; neck,
rather short.  The fur is of two kinds.  The upper and longer hair is coarse,
smooth, and glossy; the under coat is dense, soft and silky.  Fore-feet, short
and  rather slender; toes, well separated and very flexible.  The fore-feet are
used like hands to convey food to the mouth.  The fore-claws are strong,
compressed, and channelled beneath.  The middle toe is the longest, those on
each side a little shorter, and the outer and inner ones shortest.
     The hind-feet bear some resemblance to those of the goose.  They are webbed
beyond the roots of the nails, and have hard and callous soles.  In most of the
specimens we have seen, there is a double nail on the second inner toe.  The
palms and soles are naked.  When walking, the whole heel touches the ground.
The Beaver is accustomed to rest itself on its hind-feet and tail; and when in
this sitting position contracts its fore-claws in the manner of the left hand
figure represented in the plate.  The upper surface of all the feet, with the
exception of the nails, which are naked, is thickly covered with short adpressed
hairs.
     The tail is very broad and flat, tongue-shaped, and covered with angular
scales.  The root of the tail is for an inch covered with fine fur.  The
glandular sacs containing the castoreum, a musky unctuous substance, are
situated near the anus.


                                    COLOUR.

     Incisors, on their outer surface, orange; moustaches, black; eyes,
light-brown.  The soft under down is light grayish-brown.  The upper fur on the
back is of a shining chesnut colour; on the under surface, and around the mouth
and throat, a shade lighter.  Nails, brown; webs between the toes, and tail,
grayish-brown.  We have seen an occasional variety.  Some are black; and we
examined several skins that were nearly white.


                                  DIMENSIONS.

     Male, represented in the plate.--Rather a small specimen.   Inches.

     From nose to root of tail,.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 23
     Tail,.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  . 10
     From heel to end of middle claw,.  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  5 1/2
     Greatest breadth of tail, .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  3 1/4
     Thickness of tail,  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .  .    7/8
                              Weight, 11 1/4 lbs.


                                    HABITS.

     The sagacity and instinct of the Beaver have from time immemorial been the
subject of admiration and wonder.  The early writers on both continents have
represented it as a rational, intelligent, and moral being, requiring but the
faculty of speech to raise it almost to an equality, in some respects, with our
own species.  There is in the composition of every man, whatever may be his
pride in his philosophy, a proneness in a greater or less degree to
superstition, or at least credulity.  The world is at best but slow to be
enlightened, and the trammels thrown around us by the tales of the nursery are
not easily shaken off.  Such travellers into the northern parts of Sweden,
Russia, Norway, and Lapland, as OLAUS MAGNUS, JEAN MARIUS, RZACZYNSKY, LEEMS,
&c., whose extravagant and imaginary notions were recorded by the credulous
GESNER, who wrote marvellous accounts of the habits of the Beavers in Northern
Europe, seem to have worked on the imaginations and confused the intellects of
the early explorers of our Northern regions--LA HONTAN, CHARLEVOIX, THEODAT,
ELLIS, BELTRAMI, and CARTWRIGHT.  These last, excited the enthusiasm of BUFFON,
whose romantic stories have so fastened themselves on the mind of childhood, and
have been so generally made a part of our education, that we now are almost led
to regret that three-fourths of the old accounts of this extraordinary animal
are fabulous; and that with the exception of its very peculiar mode of
constructing its domicile, the Beaver is, in point of intelligence and cunning,
greatly exceeded by the fox, and is but a few grades higher in the scale of
sagacity than the common musk-rat.
     The following account was noted down by us as related by a trapper named
PREVOST, who had been in the service of the American Fur Company for upwards of
twenty years, in the region adjoining the spurs of the Rocky Mountains, and who
was the "Patroon" that conveyed us down the Missouri river in the summer and
autumn of 1843.  As it confirms the statements of HEARNE, RICHARDSON, and other
close observers of the habits of the Beaver, we trust that although it may
present little, that is novel, it will from its truth be acceptable and
interesting to our readers.  Mr. PREVOST States in substance as follows.
     Beavers prefer small clear-water rivers, and creeks, and likewise resort to
large springs.  They, however, at times, frequent great rivers and lakes.  The
trappers believe that they can have notice of the approach of winter weather,
and of its probable severity, by observing the preparations made by the Beavers
to meet its rigours; as these animals always cut their wood in good season, and
if this be done early, winter is at hand.
     The Beaver dams, where the animal is at all abundant, are built across the
streams to their very head waters.  Usually these dams