h, without that allurement, they would
have instinctively avoided. In this manner the steward caught fifteen
or twenty rats in three hours.

THE BEAVER.

There is but one species of this animal, which is found in the
temperate regions of both continents. It spends a great part of its
time in the water, where it constructs dams and builds huts of the
branches of trees. It gnaws these asunder with wonderful dexterity,
frequently cutting off a branch, the size of a walking-stick, with one
effort. They live in families composed of from two to ten.

_A tame Beaver._--Major Roderfort, of New York, had a tame beaver,
which he kept in his house upwards of half a year, and allowed to run
about like a dog. The cat belonging to the house had kittens, and she
took possession of the beaver's bed, which he did not attempt to
prevent. When the cat went out, the beaver would take one of the
kittens between his paws, and hold it close to his breast to warm it,
and treated it with much affection. Whenever the cat returned, he
restored her the kitten.

_Affection of the Beaver._--Two young beavers were taken alive some
years ago, and carried to a factory near Hudson's Bay, where they grew
very fast. One of them being accidentally killed, the survivor began to
moan, abstained from food, and finally died in grief for the loss of
its companion.

_A tame Beaver in the Zoological Gardens of London._--"This animal
arrived in England, in the winter of 1825, very young, being small and
woolly, and without the covering of long hair which marks the adult
beaver. It was the sole survivor of five or six, which were shipped at
the same time, and was in a very pitiable condition. Good treatment
soon made it familiar. When called by its name, 'Binny,' it generally
answered with a little cry, and came to its owner. The hearth-rug was
its favorite haunt, upon which it would lie stretched out, sometimes on
its back, and sometimes flat on its belly, but always near its master.
The building instinct showed itself immediately after it was let out of
its cage, and materials were placed in its way,--and this before it had
been a week in its new quarters. Its strength, even before it was half
grown, was great. It would drag along a large sweeping-brush, or a
warming-pan, grasping the handle with its teeth, so that the load came
over its shoulder; it then advanced in an oblique direction, till it
arrived at the point where it wished to place it. The long