The Olneyville times. (Olneyville [Providence, R.I.]) 1887-1917, 1908-10-16

Feats Performed by This Indus
trious Little Worker.
A CLEVER HOUSE EUILDER.

ile Is Capable of Constructing a Dwell
ing a. Large, Though Not so High,
es Small HayGtack, and He Can
Cut Down Dig Trees With His Teeth
Almost every one knows something
about the beaver and that It builds
dams and houses 10 dwell In, but very
few people have seen beavers In their
wild state. II is also a fact that the
race Of Industrious lI'tlc workers is
.apidly disappearing IN the older dis.
trlcts beavers generally liyC In the
banks Of the streams they iuhuhit. and
The sight OF beaver house Is uncom
mon.
Where beavers 30 build houses, says
Forest and Stream. the structures dir
for greatly I'm size, shape and location
some are ge large, though Of course
.css high than ~ small havstack; 9th
'rs are hardly more than six feet
through M thc base. They may stand
either wholly on land or par,Iy In the
water anl partly on the bank or whol
IS I'm the water.
They are never placed I'm very dec
wafer, for a la"c must ne built FOR the
house 10 stand ON reaching mp to the
surface, since the chamber inhabited
by the occupants must be dry.
The shape of those houses on the
shore approaches the conl"al Those In
the wafer are more Irregular, some
times only rounded, at others long and
rather fat ON top
Within each house and connected
with the wafer 10y concealed passage
through which the beavers pass to and
fro is the chamber which Is the ami
mails dwelling place
II Is large enough 10 contain seven or
eight of them and high enough SO that
n beaver can conveniently sit up on his
Launches. II Is warm, dry and clean,
for the beaver Is extremely neat I'm all
his habits.
The food of the beaver consists
chiefly of the green bark of twlgs ana
Young limbs of various trees. cotton
wood bark Is preferred; then comes
willow. then alder, but the bark Of
almost any tree may be eaten.
have known them to eat pine and
white cedar The beaver often cuts
down trees Of very considerable size to
gct at the smaller limbs, which they
,at
have seen cottonwoods twenty
inches In diameter SO cut and once on
I'll, 4 In
and onc-half feet through which they
had gnawCd down.
The work of cutting down large
tree Is done 10y single animal |
have seen the beaver engaged in the
operation, which Is MS follows: The
beaver sits UP ON his launches facing
the tree and with It's fore paws rcst
ing againS, It. With It's head turnSl
on one side he cuts a groove abuA
and then one below and bites out the
chin. taking II OF in almost the same
way an aNman would.
He thus saves himself the trouble
OF guawing all the wood UP into fine
cuttings. When the tree is fcllcd the
whole community attack and cut up
the tender limbs, carrying them away
To the cache.
Unlike many OF our gnawing ami
mails. the beaver does not sleep through
the winter. lie remains active, often
vcnturing abroad during the whole of
the cold weather. lie must, therefore.
have food and a large part OF the
eup,u,,T oDI o,itunnn Is J,ynt,1 to co.
curing this food ana dcpoSiting IL i'm
caches This food consists OF the
limbs aud twlgs of the trees most pre-
fcrred by the beaver.
They are cut from one and a half
to three feet long stripped Of their
leaves and smaller twigs. carried TO
the water and tloatcd to the cache.
whore they are sunk. And here comes
very curious nniut