THE ANIMAL WORLD OF BRAZIL 



northern hemisphere, except that its tail is not trowel-shaped, but 

 like a rat's. It is found in the basin of the Rio de La Plata. 



Almost as large as the Gapyvara is the Paca, a rodent whose body- 

 is striped with rows of white spots. The Paca burrows in the ground, 

 and is still found in the Organ Mountains. Its smaller relatives, the 

 Preyas, are common throughout Brazil, The Guinea-pigs are a 

 branch of this family, and they were domesticated by the ancient 

 Peruvians. The Preyas themselves look like small brown Guinea- 

 pigs ; it always amused me to see them appear, when all was quiet, 

 and look about them with their large and beautiful eyes. I was 

 always glad to see the Moco too, a somewhat larger form, which is 

 found in the rocky regions of the Sertao. 



Other pretty Brazihan rodents are the Cutias, Agoutis or Golden 

 Hares, which I have not seen in a state of Nature, but only in the 

 park at Rio. They have a considerable resemblance to the Dwarf 

 Antelopes, or rather. Dwarf Musk-deer, of the Old World. In the 

 southern portion of the continent, in the pampas of Patagonia, live 

 the Viscachas, which are like Marmots, and the Maras, which 

 resemble hares, except that their ears are short ; while in the Cordil- 

 leras the Chincillas live a hazardous life, persecuted on account of 

 their valuable skins. In the trees of the Brazilian forests there are not 

 only pretty little squirrels, but also Tree-Porcupines, which have 

 prehensile tails, which however they do not pass over a branch, as 

 the monkeys do, but under it, curHng it upwards. The quills of one 

 species are so loosely set in the skin that they readily fall out, and 

 being barbed, they penetrate the hide of an enemy, and finally 

 disappear under the surface. 



I ought still to mention a whole series of rats of primitive types, 

 but in order to avoid overstepping the limits of this volume I must 

 leave the lower orders of mammals and say something of the highest 

 mammalian order, that of the Monkeys. 



That the Monkeys should find a congenial home in a land of 

 forests like Brazil is only natural. But they must have arrived in 

 South America at a very early date, for among the monkeys of the 

 New World we find animals which are closely related to the types 

 which must have been the ancestors of this great mammalian order, 

 but which have now died out in the Old World. The American 

 monkeys differ fundamentally from those of Africa and Asia. While 

 the latter have, like man, a narrow septum, so that the nostrils look 



173 



