GUINEA-PIGS IN PERU. 7 



this particular one could not be had because, I was assured, he was the 

 "padre" (sire) of the entire family. Size seemed to be the point 

 especially emphasized in the breeding of guinea-pigs in this cabin, as 

 would naturally be the case when the animals formed the meat-supply 

 of the family, as they do now among the native poor of Peru and doubt- 

 less have done since ancient times. 



But the chief object of my journey to Peru was the study not of the 

 domesticated guinea-pigs of the country, but of their wild progenitors. 

 Accordingly special efforts were made to secure specimens of the wild 

 cavy, which Professor Bailey had found to be abundant in the locality. 

 Once or twice, when riding along a road between irrigated fields, I had 

 seen a cavy scurry to cover in a pile of rocks; further, I had observed 

 droppings of the animals in the roclsy wall of a cattle corral in an 

 alfalfa field. But how to capture the animals alive was a problem 

 which baffled immediate solution. It seemed likely that the natives 

 would know better how to go about this than I did. Accordingly word 

 was passed around among the near-by villages that a good price would 

 be paid at the observatory for wild cavies, either alive or dead. 

 Within a few hours boys began to arrive with the coveted specimens 

 and for the next week I was kept busy preparing skins and saving bones 

 of the animals which were received dead, or making cages and caring 

 for such as arrived alive. In this way 11 cavies (all I could hope to 

 transport safely) and about a dozen skins were soon secured, and 

 preparations were made for the return journey. In due time the 

 journey was accomplished, and with such success that three new races 

 of guinea-pigs were added to our experimental stocks, viz, (1) a wild 

 species, the probable ancestor of the domesticated guinea-pig, identified 

 as Cavia cutleri Bennett; (2) a feral race from lea, probably identical 

 with that described by Von Tschudi; (3) domesticated guinea-pigs, 

 such as are at present kept by the natives of Peru. 



