172 GLIRES. 
The Isthmian Agouti, as is shown by the above synonymy, has been referred to various 
species by different writers ; but it is a sufficiently well-marked form, distinguishable 
at a glance from its congeners by the colour of the long hairs of the rump, which are 
not annulated, but black broadly tipped with orange or yellow. Nearly a dozen examples 
which I have examined agree in all essential points, differing only slightly in the more 
or less ruddy tint of the ramp; and Dr. v. Frantzius says that the specimens obtained 
by him in Costa Rica were also very uniform in coloration. 
Mr. Salvin tells me that this appears to be a common species in Panama. In 1873 
he saw some running about in the underwood of the forest near Obispo station. 
Dr. v. Frantzius remarks that its habits do not differ from those of the other 
Agoutis?. 
This is doubtless the animal which Lionel Wafer met with in Panama in 1681, and 
of which he gives the following account :—“ Here are Rabbits, call’d by our English, 
Indian Conies. They are as large as our Hares; But I know not that this Country has 
any Hares. These Rabbits have no Tails, and but little short Ears; and the Claws of 
their Feet are long. They lodge in the Roots of Trees, making no Burrows; and the 
Indians hunt them, but there is no great Plenty of them. They are very good Meat, 
and eat rather moister than ours’*. 
Our illustration is from one of the type specimens now in the British Museum. 
2. Dasyprocta punctata. 
Dasyprocta punctata, Gray, Ann, Nat. Hist. x. p. 264 (1842, descr. orig.’) ; Zool. Voy. ‘ Sulphur,’ 
p- 36, pl. xv.?; Alston, P. Z. S. 1876, p.350°. 
? Dasyprocta aguti, Tomes, P. Z.S. 1861, p. 281 [nec Linnzeus]*. 
Dasyprocta azare, Tomes, P. Z.S8. 1861, p. 287 [nec Lichtenstein] ’. 
Cotusa of Guatemalans. 
Hab. Mexico, Yucatan (Gaumer, Mus. Boucard); GuaremMaLa, Duefias (Salvin, Mus. 
Brit.®) ; Costa Rica (Viv. Zool. Soc.*). 
The Punctated Agouti is much less constant in colour than the last species, Mr. 
Salvin’s Guatemalan specimens varying in general tint from a rich deep chestnut to a pale 
yellow. The latter agree exactly with Gray’s types, of which the vague habitat “ Tro- 
pical America” only is given, but which were collected by Commanders Belcher and 
Kellett, probably on the west coast of Costa Rica or Nicaragua. 
These pale specimens bear a very remarkable resemblance to D. azarw, Lichtenstein, 
the most southern species of Agouti, which inhabits central and southern Brazil, 
Paraguay, and Bolivia. Consequently D. punctata has been united with D. azare by 
Wagner} and by Mr. Waterhouse}; and were it not for the consideration of the vast 
* Dampier’s Voyages, lil. p. 330. + Suppl. Schreb. Siugth. iv. p. 40. 
+ Nat. Hist. Mamm. ii. p. 387. 
