124 SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF MAMMALIA. 



Lanigera ; and Fig. 79 the skull : a, skull seen from 

 above ; b, the same seen from below ; c, the lower jaw. 



Cuvier's Lagotis (Lagotis Cuvie?'i). 



Of the genus Lagotis two species were described and 

 figured by Mr. Bennett (see the 'Trans. Zool. Soc.,' 

 vol. i.). In this genus the toes of the anterior as well 

 as posterior feet are four. The hind-limbs are consider- 

 ably developed ; the muzzle is somewhat elongated and 

 narrow, and furnished with long whiskers ; the eyes are 

 moderate, but prominent ; the ears are elongated, rounded 

 at the tip, and rolled inwards at the edges. The fur is 

 soft, long, and downy, and but loosely attached to the 

 skin. The tail of tolerable length, and bushy, with 

 long, stiff, wiry hairs. General contour rabbit-like. 

 (Fig. 80.) 



M. Desmarest was the first to suggest that a viscacha 

 observed by Feuillee in Pern, and, as he says, often 

 domesticated in the houses at Lima, was a distinct species 

 from the viscacha of the Pampas ; and a careful exami- 

 nation of the scattered notices published by travellers 

 respecting the viscachas of the eastern and western sides 

 of the Andes led Mr. Bennett to form the same opinion, 

 which was confirmed by the acquisition of a living ani- 

 mal regarded as the Peruvian viscacha of the older 

 writers. The references to the Peruvian viscacha by 

 various of the early travellers in South America are by 

 no means limited, and in collating them Mr. Bennett 

 evinced a spirit of laborious research. He refers to Pedro 

 de Cie9a, 1554; Acosta, 1590; Garcilago de la Vega, 

 1609; Nieremberg, 1635 ; Feuillee, 1725; and Antonio 

 de Ulloa, 1772. The last writer, in his ' Noticias 

 Americanas,* gives a correct account of the habits and 

 manners of the animal in question. Mr. Bennett's 

 translation is as follows : — " Taking the place of the 

 rabbit, which is wanting in Peru, there is another kind 

 of animal, called viscacha, which is not found; in 

 Quito. In form and in the colour of the fur it is similar 



