ALLEN: mammalia: caviid^. 



27 



still worth quoting, and constitute nearly all that has been heretofore pub- 

 lished on the subject. He says : " The Kerodon is common at intervals 

 along the coast of Patagonia, from the Rio Negro (Lat. 41°) to the Strait 

 of Magellan. It is very tame, and commonly feeds by day ; it is said to 

 bring forth two young ones at a birth. At the Rio Negro it frequents in 

 great numbers the bottoms of old hedges ; at Port Desire it lives beneath 

 the ruins of the old Spanish buildings. One old male killed there weighed 

 3530 grains. At the Strait of Magellan, I have seen amongst the Pata- 

 gonian Indians, cloaks for small children made with the skins of this little 

 animal ; and the Jesuit Falkner says, that the people of one of the southern 

 tribes, take their name from the number of these animals which inhabit 

 their country. The Spaniards and half-civilized Indians, call the Kerodon, 

 ' conejos,' or rabbit ; and thus the mistake has arisen, that rabbits are found 

 in the neighborhood of the Strait of Magellan." — Darwin, Voyage of the 

 Beagle, Mamm., pp. 88, 89. 



Mr. Durnford [cf. Thomas, /. c., p. 212), writes of its presence at Chubut, 

 as follow : " Extremely abundant, and found in every clump of brush- 

 wood throughout the neighborhood. This little animal is very good eating. 

 It sits up like a rabbit on its hind-quarters while chewing the mouthful it 

 has just taken." 



Mr. Hatcher (Narrative, p. 123) refers to their abundance at the junction 

 of the Rio Belgrano and Rio Chico as follows : " Hopping about among the 

 bushes and rocks were to be seen in great numbers representatives of the 

 little gray, tailless and hare-like Cavia aitstralis. Most interesting and 

 amusing little creatures they are, as, always alert and intent on detecting 

 the first approach of danger, they hop about from one position to another, 

 or sit erect on their haunches and nibble unceasingly at a fragment of 

 plantain leaf, or other morsel of food held conveniently in the fore paws. 

 The favorite haunts of these little animals are shallow burrows about the 

 bases of the larger bushes, or beneath certain herbaceous plants like Bolax 

 glabaria, that grow in broad, dense, casspitose masses upon the surface of 

 the ground." 



This little animal thus appears to be abundant over a wide extent of 

 territory, in the foothills of the eastern base of the Andes as well as along 

 the coast, and probably at all favorable localities throughout the interven- 

 ing districts. 



