244 MAMMALS. 



of nature. The Gorilla is the largest of the Quadrumana ; it has not aquatic habits. The Lion 

 is the largest of the Felidfc ; it has not aquatic habits. The Wolf is the largest of the 

 Dogs ; it has not aquatic habits. The Manunoth was the largest of the Pachyderms ; it had not 

 aquatic habits. And so on with aU except some half-dozen. If he intended to say, that when 

 any species had aquatic habits it was one of the largest of its order or group, it woidd be more 

 just. The Polar Bear probably attains a greater size than any other Bear, it is aquatic; there 

 are few Polecats larger than the Otter, it is aquatic ; the Hippopotamus is a good-sized Pachyderm, 

 if it be a Pachyderm, and larger than a Sow, if we reckon it and the Swine as sole members of 

 the omnivorous family ; in the Rodents the ride seems to hold well ; the Toxodon beats every 

 thing else ; even abstracting it the Capybara is the largest of the Guinea-pigs ; and the Beaver of 

 the Squirrels, if it is a Squirrel, or of the Voles, if it is a Vole. 



Tlie Capybara extends over the whole of South America east of the Andes, and north of the 

 Rio de la Plata, wherever there is water. Mr. Darwin says that it occasionally frequents the 

 islands in the mouth of the Plata, where the water is quite salt, but is more abundant on the 

 borders of the fresh-water lakes and rivers. He never heard of its being found south of the Plata ; 

 but as he sees in a map that there is a Laguna del Carpincho (the local name for the Capybara) high 

 up on the Rio Salado, he supposes such must have occurred. And why not ? Such a stream as the 

 Plata might be an effectual barrier against the passage of a land Cavy, as the Uruguay has been 

 against the migration of the Viscacha ; but against a water Cavy it would be an in\dtation instead 

 of a deterrent. Still the fact appears to be that they now keep on the north side of it. 



Fossil remains, apparently belonging to the existing Capybara, and some bones which he refers 

 to a second species, have been found by Dr. Lund in the bone-caves of Brazil. Four other fossil 

 Cavies are also enumerated by him as having left their bones in the same caves. Waterhouse 

 speaks of them as evidently nearly allied to existing species, although more than one of them are 

 probably distinct. 



The Cavies have to mom-n or rejoice in (as they take it) the absence of a tail. Doubtless 

 they rejoice in it, because if they required it, or could have used it to advantage, it wovdd have 

 been given them. But to us, who do not see behind the scenes, it gives them an unfinished 

 sort of look, as if by some accident a portion of the rmnp had been cut off, and Nature had 

 healed it iqD as it was, without taking the trouble to replace the amputated portion. Some of them 

 have a certain resemblance to the Hares, both in outward appearance and some parts of their 

 structure. The Patagonian Cavy (Dolichotis Patagonica) is like a long-legged Hare. It has 

 comparatively long ears for a Gavj, or rather, I should say, it has ears ; most of the Cavies 

 seeming to have lost them at the same time as their tails. It has an apology for a tail, curled 

 up like that of a Rabbit. The colour is that of a Hare ; and in size it is merely a little larger ; its 

 palate is perforated like the Hare's, and its teeth short like its ; but, for all that, it is a Cavy 

 still. It inhabits the desolate parts of Patagonia, which is about equivalent to sajdng it inhabits 

 the whole of it, north of 48° 30' S. L. Mr. Darwin says, " The Patagonian Cavy is found only 

 where the country has a desert character. It is a common feature in the landscape of Patagonia 

 to see in the distance two or three of these Cavies hopping one after the other in a straight 

 line over the gravelly plains, thinly clothed by a few thorny bushes and a withered herbage. 

 Near the coast of the Atlantic the northern limit of the species is formed by the Sierra Tapal- 

 guen, in S. L. 37° 30', wliere the plains rather suddenly become greener and more humid. Tlie 

 limit certainly depends uijon this change, since near Mendoza (33° 30'), four degrees further 



