CHINCHILLAS AND VISCACHAS 



1343 



where they associate in large companies, and may frequently be seen abroad during 

 the daytime, keeping, however, to the shade thrown by the rocks. On the ground 

 they run much after the fashion of mice, but when feeding they sit up on their 

 hind-quarters in a squirrel-like manner, and grasp their food between the fore-paws. 

 The regions which these animals inhabit are lonely and barren, with but very small 

 amount of vegetation. In such places there are numerous perpendicular faces of 

 rock, up and down which these tiny creatures dart with such lightning-like rapidity 

 as to render it almost impossible for the eye to follow them. Although by no 

 means shy, the report of a gun is sufficient to send them at once to their holes, and 

 a spot which at one moment may be seen covered with hundreds of these creatures, 



THE SHORT-TAILED CHINCHILLA. 

 One-third natural size.) 



will be left deserted in an instant. The natives hunt them with the aid of a species 

 of weasel, which enters their burrows. From its peculiar softness and delicacy, 

 the fur has long been highly appreciated in Europe, where large quantities are 

 annually imported. 



Short-Tailed ^ he snort - tailed chinchilla (C. brevicaudata) , from Peru, is an ani- 

 Chinchilla mal ver Y little known to naturalists, some of whom have even doubted 

 its right to rank as a distinct species. It is, however, decidedly 

 larger than the common chinchilla, with relatively-shorter ears and tail. The gen- 

 eral color of the fur of the upper parts, is a very pale bluish gray, mottled with 

 slaty black ; the under surface of the body, as well as the feet, being white. The 



