1832-3.] THE TUCUTUCO. 5\ 



burrows liillocks of earth like those of tlie mole, but smaller. 

 Considerable tracts of country are so completely undermined by 

 these animals, that horses in passings over, sink above tiieir fet- 

 locks. The tucutucos appear, to a certain degree, to be grega- 

 rious ; the man who procured the specimens for me had caught 

 fiix together, and he said tiiis was a common occurrence. They 

 are nocturnal in their habits ; and their principal food is tiie 

 roots of plants, which are the object of their extensive and 

 superficial burrows. This animal is universally known by a very 

 peculiar noise which it makes when beneath the ground. A 

 person, the first time he hears it, is much surprised ; for it is not 

 easy to tell whence it comes, nor is it possible to guess v.hat 

 kind of creature utters it. The noise consists in a short, but not 

 rough, nasal grunt, which is monotonously repeated about four 

 times in quick succession : * the name Tucutuco is given in imi- 

 tation of tiie sound. Where this animal is abundant, it may be 

 heard at all times of the day, and sometimes directly beneath 

 one's ftet. When kept in a room, the tucutucos move both 

 slowly and clumsily, which appears owing to the outward action 

 of their hind legs ; and they are quite incapable, from the socket 

 of the thigh-bone not having a certain ligament, of jumping even 

 the smallest vertical height. They are very stupid in making 

 any attempt to escape; when angry or frightened they uttered 

 the tucu-tuco. Of those I kept alive several, even the first day, 

 became quite tame, not attempting to bite or to run away ; others 

 were a little wilder. 



The man who caught them asserted that very many are inva- 

 riably found blind. A specimen which I preserved in spiri*^s was 

 in this state ; Mr. Reid considers it to be the eflFect of inriam- 

 mation in the nictitating membrane. AVhen the animal was 

 alive I placed my finger within half an inch of its head, and not 

 the slightest notice was taken : it made its way, however, about 

 the room nearly as well as the others. Considering the stiictly 

 subterranean habits of the tucutuco, the blindness, though so 



* At the R. Negro, in Northern Patagonia, there is an animal of the same 

 habits, and probably a closely allied species, but -which I never saw. Its 

 noise is different from that of the Maldonado kind ; it is repeated only twice 

 instead of three or four limes, and is more distinct and sonorous: when heard 

 from a distance it so closely resembles the sound made in cutting down a small 

 tree with an axe, that I have sometimes remained in doubt concerning it. 



