SOCIABILITY OF VIZCACHA 



those convenient houses modified for his benefit. Like 

 the burrowing marmot of North America miscalled the 

 prairie dog, the vizcacha harbours, apparently not 

 unwillingly, a varied assortment of lodgers. They belong 

 to many classes of the animal kingdom. A fox is the 

 largest of these boarders, and though he and his vixen 

 devour the young vizcachas, it is apparently regarded 

 merely as " churchyard luck " by the parents, who 

 exhibit no particular symptoms of animosity against 

 vulpes. A weasel also lives almost entirely with the 

 vizcachas, and in his sheer innocence of intent it is hard 

 to believe. Quite harmless are two species of swallow 

 which build their nests upon the sides of the burrows 

 like sand martins at home. Various wasps and beetles 

 complete the list. In North America the rattlesnake 

 and the burrowing owl live with the prairie dog in har- 

 mony. In South America the same owl visits the 

 vizcacheras occasionally, and sits outside. This seems 

 to be pure sociability on the owl's part, for the bird 

 does not apparently make any use of its acquaintance. 

 The chief foes of the vizcachas are the jaguar and the 

 puma ; the domestic dog they do not care about, but 

 baffle his frantic attempts to catch them, by coolly, 

 . but with an exact appreciation of the moments necessary 

 for the action, dive into their burrow just before his jaws 

 close upon them. Mr. Hudson, who is the chief 

 authority upon the habits of this sociable little rodent, 

 doubts if there is " any other four-footed beast so 

 loquacious or with a dialect so extensive " as is the 

 vizcacha. Being a white-fleshed rodent who does not 

 lead too active a life the meat of the vizcacha is good to 

 eat. 



PORCUPINES 



Such terms as " the sharp quilled porpentyne " and 

 the " werely porpapyne," though bewildering in their 



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