50 BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 



De la Vega describes in an intelligible manner the condor 

 ( Cuntur) of South America, of which, as he tells us, there was 

 a famous Indian painting in the temple at Cacha, the mountain 

 cats or ocelots (Inca Ozcollo, Aztec Ocelot/), the puma, the 

 viscacha, the tapir, and the three-toed ostrich. He was one of 

 the first to notice the skunk {Mephitis, sp.). " which the Indians 

 call Annas, the Spanish Zorinnas" "It is well," he remarks, 

 " that these creatures are not in great numbers, for if they were, 

 they were able to poison and stench up a whole Countrey." He 

 devotes a chapter to " the tame cattel which God hath given to 

 the Indians of Peru " — the llama and the huanaco — and speaks 

 also of the paco and the vicuna, clearly distinguishing and de- 

 scribing the appearance and habits of the four species of Tylop- 

 oda which occur on the west coast of South America, although 

 European naturalists a century later knew but two of them. He 

 describes the annual vicuna hunts which were conducted by the 

 Inca kings in person, assisted by twenty or thirty thousand In- 

 dians. 



The fauna of Peru, as catalogued by him, included nearly fifty 

 species, and-the minuteness of his observations and the accuracy 

 of his descriptions are very surprising. He discusses at length 

 the plants of Peru, especially the maguey, the pineapple, the to- 

 bacco, and " the pretious leaf called Cuca" whose virtues phar- 

 macologists now hold in such high esteem, and devotes chapters 

 to ' k The Emeralds, Turquoises and Pearls of that Countrey;" to 

 gold and silver, and to quicksilver. 



De la Vega refers to a certain place in the city of Cuzco, where 

 lions and other fierce creatures were kept in captivity. The taste 

 for menageries and gardens seems to have been less pronounced 

 in Peru, however, than in Mexico. 



Much has been written concerning the wonderful collections of 

 animals and plants which the Spanish conquestadors found in 

 Montezuma's capital city. Carus, in his " Geschichte der Zool- 

 ogie " declares that at the time of the discovery of Mexico, Europe 



