MR, E. T. BENNETT ON THE CHINCHILLIDA. 43 
is much more precise in its description, although scarcely sufficiently technical for the 
purposes of the systematic naturalist. Before proceeding, however, to the latter class 
of writers, I shall conclude my account of what has been said of these creatures by 
travellers in their native country, by referring to Proctor', Head®, Miers*, and Haigh‘. 
The first of these gives nearly all the particulars which are to be found in the rest, and 
I have therefore extracted his account in the note below®. Miers adds, that the skin 
of the Viscacha is among the articles of commerce brought by the Pampa Indians to 
Buenos Ayres®. 
A specimen of this animal, which, in 1814, was living at the Menagerie at Exeter 
’Change, was the first that came under the notice of European naturalists. It was 
there observed by M. de Blainville and M. F. Cuvier, both of whom described it ; the 
former in the ‘Nouveau Dictionnaire d’Histoire Naturelle’’, and the latter in the 
‘Dictionnaire des Sciences Naturelles’’, under the name of Dipus maximus, Blainv., 
erroneously referring it to the family of the Jerboas, and not in the least suspecting its 
identity with the Viscacha. This identity was also overlooked by the late Mr. Brookes, 
who became possessed of the specimen in question after its death, and prepared from it 
a stuffed skin and a skeleton, which formed part of his valuable Museum. These ma- 
terials became the basis of a paper by that celebrated anatomist ‘On a new Genus of 
the Order Rodentia’, read before the Linnean Society in June, 1828, and published in 
their ‘ Transactions’ at the commencement of the following year’. To the new genus 
thus established Mr. Brookes gave the name of Lagostomus, and to the species that of 
trichodactylus: he described the animal and its skeleton (the latter at considerable 
length), and gave a plate! containing figures of both, together with the details of the 
teeth. The identity of this animal with the Viscacha of D’Azara became quickly ap- 
1 Narrative of a Journey across the Cordillera of the Andes, &e. London, 1825. 
2 Rough Notes taken during some rapid Journeys across the Pampas and among the Andes. London, 1826. 
pp- 82, 84-5. 
5 Travels in Chile and La Plata. London, 1826. vol. i. p. 68. 
+ Sketches of Buenos Ayres and Chile. London, 1829. pp. 28-9. & 66. 
5 «The whole country from Buenos Ayres to San Luis de la Punta, is more or less burrowed by an animal 
between a rabbit and badger, called the biscacho, which renders travelling dangerous, particularly by night, 
their holes being so large and deep, that a horse is almost sure to fall if he steps into one of them. The bis- 
cacho never ventures far from its retreat, and is seldom seen till the evening, when it comes out to feed, and 
hundreds may be observed sporting round their holes, and making a noise very similar to the grunting of pigs. 
Their flesh is much liked by the people, and they are remarkably fat, and on that account when caught at any 
distance from their holes are easily run down; they will, however, defend themselves from a dog a considerable 
time. The holes of these animals are ‘also inhabited by vast numbers of small owls, which sit during the day 
gazing at the passing travellers, and making a very ludicrous appearance. The parts of the road most fre- 
quented by the discacho are generally overrun by a species of small wild melon, bitter to the taste; whether it 
thrives particularly in the manure of the animal, or whether the biscacho chooses his hole near this running 
plant, does not seem to have been ascertained.” pp. 18, 19. 
6 Vol. i. p. 259. 7 Tom. xiii. p. 117. 8 Tom. xviii. p. 471. 2 Vol. xvi. p. 95. 10'Tab. 9. 
G2 
