174 THE EXTINCTION OP ANIMALS. 



Labrador duck was never common, and as no example has 

 been seen since 1879, it may fairly be presumed to be 

 extinct. 



In conclusion, we may refer to a very remarkable 

 mammal of which but a single example has hitherto come 

 under civilized human ken. As most of our readers are 

 probably acquainted, at least by name, with the large 

 spotted South American rodent, known as the paca a 

 distant cousin of the familiar guinea pig we shall assume 

 that they know what we mean when we talk of a paca-like 

 animal. Now, on a certain occasion, somewhat more than 

 twenty years ago, the inhabitants of Montana de Vitoc, in 

 Peru, were surprised to find at daybreak a large rodent 

 with the general appearance and coloration of a paca 

 walking unconcernedly about the courtyard of a house. 

 The creature differed, however, from a paca in having a 

 tail of considerable length, as well as in its smaller ears 

 and cleft upper lip ; while dissection revealed other internal 

 points of distinction. The curious part of the matter is 

 that none of the natives of Peru had ever previously heard 

 of or seen a similar animal (for which, by the way, the 

 name of Dinomys was suggested), and from that day to 

 this nothing more has been heard about the creature. 

 Can it be that the specimen then seen and killed was the 

 last survivor of its race, and that the Dinomys, whose 

 existence was thus strangely revealed to us, must also be 

 numbered with the extinct ? 



