The Desert Pampas. 13 



What a blessed thing it would be for poor rabbit- 

 worried Australia if a similar plague should visit 

 that country, and fall on the right animal ! On 

 the other hand, what a calamity if the infection, 

 wide-spread, incurable, and swift as the wind in its 

 course, should attack the too-numerous sheep ! 

 And who knows what mysterious, unheard-of retri- 

 butions that revengeful deity Nature may not be 

 meditating in her secret heart for the loss of her 

 wild four-footed children slain by settlers, and the 

 spoiling of her ancient beautiful order ! 



A small pampa rodent worthy of notice is the 

 Cavia australis, called cut in the vernacular from 

 its voice : a timid, social, mouse-coloured little crea- 

 ture, with a low gurgling language, like running 

 babbling waters ; in habits resembling its domes- 

 tic pied relation the guinea pig. It loves to run on 

 clean ground, and on the pampas makes little rat- 

 roads all about its hiding-place, which little roads 

 tell a story to the fox, and such like ; therefore the 

 little cavy's habits, and the habits of all cavies, I 

 fancy, are not so well suited to the humid grassy 

 region as to other districts, with sterile ground to 

 run and play upon, and thickets in which to hide. 



A more interesting animal is the Ctenomys 

 magellanica, a little less than the rat in size, with 

 a shorter tail, pale grey fur, and red incisors. It 

 is called tuco-tuco from its voice, and oculto from its 

 habits ; for it is a dweller underground, and re- 

 quires a loose, sandy soil in which, like the mole, it 

 may swim beneath the surface. Consequently the 

 pampa, with its heavy, moist mould, is not the 

 tuco's proper place; nevertheless, wherever there 



