138 MAMMALIA, 



Lepus ogotonna, Pall. Glir. Ill, Schreb. ccxxxix. (The Grey 

 Lagomys). A very light grey, with yellowish feet ; a little larger 

 than the preceding; nestles among heaps of stones, in the fissures 

 of rocks, &c., where it collects hay for the winter. 



Lepus alpinus, Pall. Glir. II, Schreb. ccxxxviii. (The Lago- 

 mys Pica). Size of a Guinea-Pig, and of a yellowish red. Inha- 

 bits the loftiest eminences of mountains, where it passes the summer 

 in selecting and drying the plants of which it makes its provision for 

 the winter. Its hay-stacks, which are sometimes six or seven feet 

 high, are a valuable resource for the horses of the sable hunters. 



The fossil bones of an unknown species of Lagomys have been 

 discovered in the concretions or osseous breccia of Corsica. Cuv. 

 Oss. Foss. IV, p. 199. 



After the two genera of Porcupines and Hares, come the Rodentia, 

 united by Linnaeus and Pallas, under the name of Cavia ; but in which it 

 is impossible to find any other common and positive character than that 

 of their imperfect clavicles, although the species of which they are com- 

 posed are not deficient in analogy between them, as respects the structure 

 of their body and their habits. They are all from the new continent. 



Hydrochcerus, Erxleb. 



The Cabiais have four toes before and three behind, all armed with 

 large nails, and united by membranes ; four grinders throughout, of which 

 the posterior are the longest, and composed of numerous, simple, and 

 parallel laminae ; the anterior lamina forked towards the external edge iu 

 the upper, and towards the internal one in the lower teeth. Only one 

 species is knowni, the 



H. capyhara; Cavia capyhara,'L.\ Capybara, Marcg.; Capiy- 

 goua, Azzar. ; Cabaia, Buff. XII, xlix. (The Capybara). Size of 

 Siam Pig ; the muzzle very thick ; limbs short ; hair coarse, and of 

 a yellowish brown ; no tail. Inhabits the rivers of Guiana and the 

 Amazon, where it lives in troops. It is excellent game, and the 

 largest of the Rodentia. The Beaver only approaches it in size. 



Cavia, Illig. — Ancema, Fr. Cuv. 



The Cobayes, vulgarly called Guinea-Pigs, are miniature representa- 

 tions of the Cabiais; but their toes are separated, and each of their 

 molars has only one simple lamina, and one that is forked on the outside 

 in the upper ones, and on the inside in the lower. The species best 

 known, 



C. cohaia, Pall. ; Mus porcellus, L. ; Buff. VIII. i. (The Gui- 

 nea Pig) is now very much multiplied in Europe, where it is brought 

 up in houses, because its odour is thought to drive away rats. Like 

 all domesticated animals, it varies in colour. There is reason for 

 believing it to proceed from an American animal called Aperea, 

 which is of the same size and form, but with a uniform reddish-grey 

 fur. It is found in the woods of Brazil and Paraguay. 



