194 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



is the Despoblado, a barren table land extending 

 N.W. to S.E. through Peru and Bolivia to Argen- 

 tina, and situated between the Corderillas and the 

 Andes at an elevation of 12,000 feet above the level 

 of the sea. Scantily covered with yellowish-brown 

 grass and stunted rhatany shrubs, these dreary 

 wastes are subject to icy winds, driving snowstorms, 

 and thick mist. Animal life is represented by a few 

 mountain forms, such as Azara's dog and the curious 

 Colaptes r7ipicola — a woodpecker that does not peck 

 wood, but flutters in numbers about the mountain 

 sides. Vegetable life is represented by gentians and 

 grasses, while a few cacti and willow trees occur in 

 the valleys. The chinchillas abound in this storm- 

 driven and (literally) howling wilderness, living in 

 holes like the rock hyrax of the Cape, They come 

 out to feed morning and evening, and are said to 

 swarm in hundreds in suitable localities, jumping 

 over the rocks — grey like themselves — with con- 

 siderable agility. These animals breed twice in the 

 year, but owing to incessant pursuit are in some 

 districts almost exterminated. The Indians snare 

 them with horse-hair nooses ; in the early part of the 

 last century chinchillas were taken by means of the 

 grison or grey-backed weasel. 



The grison {Galictis vittata) is a sturdy muscular 

 beast, resembling a small ratel or honey-badger. 

 Young animals are whitish above, black beneath, 

 showing a curious reversal of tints quite uncommon 



