the beaver.

1411

■f ® er an( l palmated. Tail broad, thick, flattened horizontally, of an ovalnaked, and covered with scales (Stark).

ji p - Char.—F ur consisting of two sorts of hair, one coarse and brownish,e other downy, more or less gray. About two feet long.

Fig. 272.

Fig. 273.

Th

j <s ^ as ^ 0r Fiber. Skeleton of the Castor Fiber .

a He ^ 6S ° f tllC tail ‘ «• Molars of the upper jaw,

w ( l 'v? 11 )! '' colour of the animal is brown ; but yellow, black, spotted,,^ ( 'liards(, e ~ avcrs are niet with. The two latter arc very rare.Sigh \^y^ auna Boreali-Americana]) has never seen either of them,

• e toil is aS inC ^ black beavers which were kept as curiosities.^'Oies 5 ; n ^ eraar kable for its scaly appearance. Its great breadth (often-llu niero l i s C f CS de P ends > n °l on die width of the caudal vertebra:, blit onSta °oth n S ron ^ tendons inserted into these vertebra;. Incisor teeth,i I’here . ran S e ‘ co teured anteriorly, white posteriorly.eav er s are reason for supposing that the European and Americanf 6 C lsdnct s P ec ies. The former are burrowers, the latter builders.

j^ule beave° F TH f Castor Sacs.—I t has been before stated, that both male andc ’u> in t|,» , rs are furnished with castor sacs: hence it will be convenient to consider

he 1- O' r/ft W iV sexes se P ara ‘ely.

lv , ar the tai] * Castor Sac. —If the animal be placed on his back, we observe,V a* i* a iry ao "°' v (called by some a cloaca) inclosed by a large wrinkled, some-th finals' » eoUS P r °tu be ran ce, which according to Perrault (Mem. for a Nat. His.

W** lls >but " i 'd? Ilt k iHtl ,) is easily contracted and dilated, not by a sphincter asp r ** ben* the S1 y hke a slit. In this hollow the anus, the prepuce, and the oil sacs open.a art* ,r ' ate mu l n t * le a l )( lomen is removed, four eminences, covered by their ap-H a die s 0 ii®' are brought into view. They are placed between the pubic archcloaca. The two nearest the pubes are the castor sacs, while thosethe** ' v *th its^ 11 a () C dle sacs - Between the two castor sacs, in the male, lies theJ, ‘ih <laca > ai ,T P m * s ) ’ ’ s lodged in a long preputial canal, which terminates in° e > Unti] th i- S ° me ana l°g. v t0 a vagina ; so that there is some difficulty to deter-f’l f , e s km be removed, whether the individual be male or female.

274, The penis points towards the tail, not towards the navel, as in theCh ““S’- Its surface is covered with longitudinal wrinkles and pits: in each

is ot the latter is found a dark-coloured warty-like body. The testicles,

deferentia, and vesiculce seminales, present nothing remarkable.There is no scrotum. Like most other Rodentia , the beaver has vesiculwoccessoria, or blind ducts, which open into the urethra near its com-uiencement. Just at the point where the urethra joins the penis areobserved Cowper's glands. The castor sacs open by a common aperture)uto the preputial canal. This aperture is about one inch in width, and■s placed opposite the extremity of the plans penis in the relaxed con.dition of the organ, and about one inch from the orifice of the prepuce.Between this common orifice of the castor sacs and the gians penis is a£ w «* of tfle ? em >lunar fold. There is also a second, similar, but thicker, fold cover-0r f'i(j er e ln S the rectum. The castor sacs are pyriform and compressed. Theycommunicate with each other at their cervical portion; but their fundi