THE COMMON CHINCHILLA. 



" Amongst others they have Httle beastes^ like unto a 

 squirrel, but that hee is gray, his skinne is the most delicate, 

 soft and curious furre that I have scene, and of much estima- 

 tion (as is reason) in the Peru ; few of them come into Spaine, 

 because difficult to come by, for that the princes and nobles 

 laie waite for them, they call this beast Chinchilla and of them 

 they have great abundance." — The observatiofis of Sir John 

 Hawkins^ Knight, 07i his voyage into the South Sea, A?i. Dom. 

 1593- 



Few, indeed, of the animals commercially valuable 

 for their fur are so charmino- durinor ijfe as the little 

 creature so quaintly described by Sir John Hawkins. 

 The common chinchilla {Chinchilla lanigei'-a) is 

 about the size of a large rat and measures fifteen 

 inches in extreme length, of which five inches are 

 occupied by the tail. The muzzle is furnished with 

 very long whiskers ; the incisor teeth are broader 

 than deep, and fronted with orange-coloured enamel ; 

 the eyes are large and beautiful ; the wide ears are 

 rounded and rather long. The body is rotund and 

 compact, being supported on short legs and furnished 

 with a somewhat bushy tail, which as a rule is 

 carried semi-erect, as if actuated by a hidden spring. 



The fur is very thick and exquisitely soft ; it is 

 usually of an ashy grey hue, though white and even 

 grey coloured varieties are sometimes met with. 

 In 1846, a form of chinchilla with a shorter tail 



