Beaver.
The beaver, at one time common
in the northern regions of both
hemispheres, is now found only in
considerable numbers, in North America,
with solitary specimens in Central Europe
and Asia. It has short ears, a blunt
nose, small fore feet, large webbed hind
feet, with a flat ovate tail covered on
its upper surface with scales. It is
valued for its fur (which was formerly
used largely in the manufacture of hats,
but for which silk is now substituted)
and for an odoriferous secretion named
castor or castoreum. Its favorite haunts
are the rivers and lakes bordered by
forests, where it lives in societies.
When they find a stream not sufficiently
deep for their purposes, they throw
across it a dam constructed with great
ingenuity, of wood, stones and mud,
gnawing down small trees, and compacting
the mud with blows of their powerful
tails. In winter they live in houses
three to four feet high, built on the
water's edge with subaqueous entrances,
and thus made secure from wolves and
other wild animals. They formerly
abounded throughout North America, but
are now only found in unsettled and
thinly populated regions. Their industry
has passed into a proverb, and their name
has long been a synonym for assiduity. It
is a curious fact, however, that there
are drones among them, who build no dams,
but only excavate long tunnels in which
they live by themselves. They are much
more easily caught than the others.
Opossum.
The opossum is found nowhere but
in America, where its range is from the
middle latitudes in the United States
through the greater part of South
America. It eats flesh, carrion,
reptiles, insects and fruit. Its head is
conical, and its snout resembles a pig's;
ears large, leafy and rounded; eyes
small; whiskers long; legs of
proportionate length; fore and hind paws
five-toed and fashioned like hands,
especially the hind ones. The tail is
long, scaly and prehensile, so as to hang
by it. The body is stout, ranging in size
from that of a large cat to that of a
small rat. The females have a pouch into
which the young are received as soon as
born, at which time they are blind and
deaf, and remain so for many days, the
dark being necessary to develop sight and
hearing, contrary to the case with
kittens and puppies. It moves slowly and
awkwardly on the ground, and is more at
home in trees. There are a dozen
varieties and some are aquatic. It is an
uncleanly beast, but the flesh is white
and palatable, especially in autumn when
feeding on fruits. In confinement it is
sullen and intractable. When caught or
threatened it will feign death and submit
to severe ill-treatment without showing
the least sign of life, giving rise to
the common phrase "playing possum."
Bison.
The bison, commonly, but
improperly called the buffalo, formerly
ranged in countless numbers over most of
the United States and British America,
and extending as far east as Virginia;
but with the advance of civilization the
contraction of the area of its habitat
and the reduction of its numbers have
gone on with remarkable rapidity. The
construction of the Union Pacific
railroad cut the great herd in two,
leaving a Southern or Texas herd, and a
Northern or Yellowstone herd. These have
now been reduced to a few thousands, and
the bison is apparently soon to become
extinct as a wild animal. The animal
resembles the aurochs of Europe, but is
considerably smaller; the hump is high
and large; the hind quarters are light,
the tail about twenty inches long, ending
in a wisp of hair about six inches
additional. The horns, especially in the
maile, are short, thick and much curved;
the head is carried very low, the long,
shaggy hair of the foreparts sometimes
sweeping the ground; the color is
blackish in fresh coats of hair, but
becomes brown or gray. In summer, after
shedding its hair, the animal is nearly
naked. Formerly the hair-covered skins
were much used as robes, but only the
cows were killed for that purpose, the
hides of the bulls not working well. The
flesh of the cow is juicy and tender, and
the hump and tongue are especially
esteemed. The buffalo was of vast
importance to the Indian, with whom he is
passing into history.
Bighorn.
The Rocky Mountain sheep is
called bighorn from the immense size of
its horns, which resemble those of the
argali (the wild sheep of Asia) but are
shorter, and comparatively stouter, and
not so spiral. The animal in other
respects resembles, and is closely allied
to the argali, of which it is the
American representative. In color it is
grayish brown, with whitish buttocks like
the other wild sheep. It stands about
three and a half feet high at the
withers, and is very stoutly built. It
inhabits the higher mountain ranges of
the Western United States, from New
Mexico and northern California northward,
down nearly or quite to sea level in the
higher latitudes, and is abundant in
suitable localities in Colorado, Wyoming,
Montana, Idaho, etc. It is much hunted
for its flesh, which makes excellent
mutton. Like other wild sheep it is
gregarious, living in flocks of twenty or
thirty, among the most cragged and
inaccessible rocks. From these spots they
never wander, but are content to find
their food on the little knolls of green
herbage, among the precipices, and
without wandering to the verdant plains
below. When wounded, unless unto
immediate death, the animal makes its way
into some spot almost impossible to
reach, and dying there, is useless to the
hunter. Formerly it displayed great
curiosity at the sight of man, but
learning his destructive propensities, it
now takes no chances, but keeps as far
away as possible.
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