THE COYPU 



quents. When, however, the banks are not sufficiently high to allow of this, a plat- 

 form-like nest is constructed among the reeds. The burrow is generally three or 

 four feet in depth, and expands at the end into a chamber of some two 

 feet in diameter. They are generally found in pairs, but in Argentine 

 the writer has seen them coming out in large parties in the evening to swim and 

 sport in the water. Here they utter peculiarly mournful cries; the females, at the 

 proper season, being each accompanied by some eight or nine offspring, which 

 endeavor to obtain a seat on their parent's back, those that are unable to attain this 

 position of security swimming behind. Although a first-rate swimmer, the coypu is 

 said not to be an adept at diving, and its movements on land are always awkward 

 and ungainly. These animals usually select for their haunts the stillest parts of the 

 rivers, lakes, or ponds, and their food consists of the foliage, seeds, and roots of 







THE COYPU. 

 (One-fifth natural size.) 



the water plants growing hard by. In the Chonos Archipelago, where they make 

 their burrows in the forest at some distance from the shore, they are said, however, 

 to subsist partly on mollusks. 



In Argentine Mr. Hudson states that at one time the coypu became very scarce 

 owing to the numbers killed for their fur. An enactment was then passed forbid- 

 ding the killing of these animals; the result being that they " increased and multi- 

 plied exceedingly, and, abandoning their aquatic habits, they became terrestrial and 

 migratory, and swarmed everywhere in search of food. Suddenly a mysterious 

 malady fell on them , from which they quickly perished and became almost extinct. ' ' 

 The under-fur of the coypu is an important article of commerce, the average 

 number of skins annually collected varying from three hundred thousand to five 

 hundred thousand. In Argentine the coypu is universally known as the nutria, 



