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83.— Viscacha. 



for they devour both European wheat and Indian corn 

 with great avidity, despising grass when either is to be 

 obtained. Hence the stations of the biscachas are seldom 

 to be met with in the desert plains, but indicate with 

 certainty the proximity of Spanish settlements ; and it 

 has often been a matter of surprise to me that I have 

 never seen the biscacha in the territories (though well 

 covered with crops of all kinds) either of the Abipones 

 or the Guaranis. They are in the habit of heaping 

 up at the entrances of their burrow dry bones, chips 

 of wood, and refuse articles of every sort which fall in 

 their way. The purpose, however, for which these 

 things are collected is beyond conjecture. The Spanish 

 colonists occasionally spend an idle hour in hunting them ; 



