THE GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MAMMALS 



185 



Plagiodontia) are arboreal and found only in Cuba, Hayti and 

 Jamaica. The chinchillas {Chinchilla and Lagidimn) of the 

 Andes and the Vizcacha {Viscaccia) of the Argentine plains 

 have somewhat the appearance of hares, but with long and 

 bushy tails. The cavies, to which the familiar, misnamed 

 Guinea-Pig (Cavia porcellus) belongs, are a very characteristic 

 family ; besides the true cavies, it includes the Patagonian 

 Mara (Dolichotis), a large, long-legged, long-eared, short- 

 tailed creature, and the Water-Hog, or Carpincho (Hydro- 

 choerus), an aquatic animal, as its name implies, and much the 



Fig. 106. — Hairy-rumped Agouti (Dasyprocta prymnolopha). — By perniission of 

 W. S. Berridgc, London. 



largest of existing rodents ; it occurs in the warmer regions, 

 south to Argentina. The heavy Paca (Agouti) and the 

 slender-limbed Agouti (Dasyprocta) make up another family. 

 Altogether, this assemblage of the porcupine-like suborder 

 of rodents is a very remarkable one and in no other region 

 of the earth is anything like it to be found. 



With the exception of one genus of armadillos, which has 

 invaded Texas, the entire order of the Edentata is at present 

 confined to the Neotropical region, the so-called edentates 

 of the Old World now being removed to other orders. The 



