THE COMMON CHINCHILLA 1 95 



in Nature; with age they gradually darken to iron 

 grey. The grison is extremely active and intelligent, 

 and even in captivity allows nothing to escape its 

 persevering inquisitiveness. Pattering about its 

 cage at a rapid pace on its stumpy legs, it continually 

 sniffs at and inspects everything — delighting to be 

 noticed, though no doubt ready enough to give an 

 incautious observer a bite with its trenchant jaws. 

 "That animal knows everything you say," a dealer 

 observed to the present writer in reference to a young 

 individual afterwards sold to the London Zoolosfical 

 Gardens. It only needs a glance at such a wide- 

 awake beast to realise what a terrible customer 

 a trained grison would be in the hands of a native 

 hunter. How the terrified chinchillas would scurry 

 from their burrows like rabbits bolting from a ferret! 

 Captive chinchillas are as inoffensive as guinea-pigs, 

 never biting even when handled, and spending most 

 of the daytime in sleep. They may be fed like rabbits, 

 and provided they are warmly bedded probably do not 

 require the hot house temperature which the authori- 

 ties of zoological gardens seem so anxious to give 

 them. It must be remembered that chinchillas 

 inhabit Alpine regions, otherwise their thick woolly 

 fur would be useless to them. Beasts of hot coun- 

 tries are generally smooth-coated, and even the 

 woolly fur of the Cape hunting-dog is not very thick. 

 Besides, it has been found that many tropical animals 

 do well (at least in summer) with out-door treatment; 



