
: possry 
XXXVII. Additional Remarks on the Genus Lagotis, with some account of a second Spe- 
cies referrible to it. By E. T. Bennert, Esq., F.L.S., Sec. Z.S. 
Communicated May 26, 1835. 
THE brief notice which I am about to lay before the Society may be regarded as sup- 
plemental to the communication ‘ On the Chinchillide’ made to it in the spring of 1833, 
and published in the First Part of the ‘Transactions’!. Its object is to characterize a 
second species of the genus Lagotis, a genus originally proposed by me in the summer of 
1832, and described in detail in the paper referred to ; in which were included an account 
of the external form, the visceral anatomy, and the osteology of the genus, as observed in 
the only individual which I had seen of the single species then comprised in it. A skin 
of a second species has since come into the possession of the Society, having been ac- 
quired by purchase from Mr. Gould, who bought it out of a collection believed to have 
been brought from the Chilian Andes: this skin furnishes the sole materials within my 
reach for the elucidation of the characters of the animal in question. 
Lagotis, it will be remembered, differs externally from Chinchilla by the possession of 
four toes on each of its feet, instead of five on the anterior and four on the posterior ; 
and by the greater length of its tail, which is nearly equal to that of the body and head 
taken together, while in Chinchilla the length of the tail, exclusive of the hairs, is 
scarcely more than one half of that of the body and head. To these characters I had 
formerly added that derived from the greater length of the ears in Lagotis as compared 
with those of Chinchilla, these organs being in Lag. Cuvieri equal in length to the 
distance interposed between their base and the muzzle of the animal, while in the latter 
they scarcely exceed three fourths of that distance ; but as this character does not ob- 
tain in the animal before me, it can no longer be regarded as generic. In the second 
species of Lagotis the ears have nearly the same comparative length as in Chinch. lam- 
gera ; but they do not possess the amplitude of lateral development which distinguiskes 
those of the latter animal. 
This diminished length of the ears in the second species of Lagotis affords, perhaps, 
the most readily appreciable distinguishing mark between it and Lug. Cuviert ; but 
there are other characters of distinction between them which may be thus expressed : 
1p. 35. 
