. The quadrupeds of North America [microform]. Mammals; Rodentia; Mammifères; Rongeurs. 358 AMERICAN BEAVER where its (liuns formerly existed jire on pure running streams, and not on the slusKisli rivers near lh(! ih li GENKRAI. RHMARKS. It is (louhted by some authors whether the Ameriean Beaver is identi- cal witli the Heaver whic^h exists in the north of Europe ; F. Cuviek, KuiiL, and others, deseril)ed it under the names of C. Amvrkanus, C. Canadensis, »fce. From the ampliihious habits of this aninial, and its northern range on both continents, strong; arguments in favour of tl
. The quadrupeds of North America [microform]. Mammals; Rodentia; Mammifères; Rongeurs. 358 AMERICAN BEAVER where its (liuns formerly existed jire on pure running streams, and not on the slusKisli rivers near lh(! ih li GENKRAI. RHMARKS. It is (louhted by some authors whether the Ameriean Beaver is identi- cal witli the Heaver whic^h exists in the north of Europe ; F. Cuviek, KuiiL, and others, deseril)ed it under the names of C. Amvrkanus, C. Canadensis, »fce. From the ampliihious habits of this aninial, and its northern range on both continents, strong; arguments in favour of tlie identity of the American and European species might be maintained, even without ado|)ting tlie theory of the former connexion of the two ad- Jacent continents. We carefully compared many specimens (American and European) in tin; museums of Europe, and did not perceive any dif- ferenoe between them, except that the American specimens were a very little larger than the European. We saw a living Beaver in Denmark that had been obtained in the north of Sweden; in its general appear- ance and actions it did not differ from those we have seen in confine- ment in America. It has b'een argued, however, that the European ani- mal differs in its habits from the American, and that along the banks of the Weser, the Rhone, and the Danube, the Beavers are not gregarious, and that they burrow in the banks like tiie nmsk-rat. But change of habit may be the result of altered circumstances, and is not in itself suf- ficient to constitute a species. Our wild pigeon {Columbn migralor'ui) formerly bred in counnunifies in the Northern States; we once saw one of their breeding jjlaces near Lake Champlain, where there were more than a hundred nests on a single tree. They still t)reed in that portion of the country, but the persecutions of man have cop Mled them to ndoi)t a ditlVrent habit, and two nests are now seldom founu on a tree. The banks of the European rivers, (on whicii the Beaver still
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Keywords: ., bookauthorau, bookcentury1800, bookdecade1840, booksubjectmammals
