Biography of the Vizcacha. 313 
circumstances in the different localities where I 
have met with it, | am sure that other variations 
will occur in the more distant regions, where it is 
influenced by other extraneous conditions. 
The most remarkable thing to be said about 
the vizcacha is, that although regarded by Mr. 
Waterhouse, and others who have studied its 
affinities, as one of the lowest of the rodents, 
exhibiting strong Marsupial characters, the living 
animal appears to be more intelligent than other 
rodents, not of South America only, but also of those 
ot a higher type in other continents. A parallel 
case 18, perhaps, to be found in the hairy armadillo, 
an extremely versatile and intelligent animal, 
although only an edentate. And among birds the 
Ipecaha—a large La Plata rail—might also be men- 
tioned as an example of what ought not to be; for 
it is a bold and intelligent bird, more than a match 
for the fowl, both in courage and in cunning; and 
yet it 1s one of the family which Professor Parker— 
from the point of view of the anatomist—charac- 
terizes as a ‘ feeble-minded, cowardly group.” 
