140 MAMMALIA. 



finest description, and the softest that is known among the furs of com- 

 merce. The ears are large and half naked; the tail, one-third the 

 length of the body, is furnished with stifFer hairs, so arranged as to give 

 it the appearance of being laterally compressed. The fore feet have 

 four toes with a vestige of a thumb ; llie hinder ones have only three. 

 This quadruped inhabits the mountains of South America. 



The Viscache, as described by Azzara (Quadr. du Parag., French 

 Trans. II, p. 41), and such as we have seen it figured, can hardly be 

 any other than a large species of Chinchilla, with shorter and coarser 

 fur.* (a.) 



ORDER VI. 



EDENTATA. 



The Edentata, or quadrupeds without teeth in the front of their jaws, 

 will form our last order of unguiculated animals. Although united by a 

 negative character alone, they have, nevertheless, some positive mutual 

 relations, and particularly large nails, which embrace the extremities of 

 the toes, approaching more or less to the nature of hoofs : and further, a 

 slowness, a want of agility, arising from the disposition of their limbs, 

 which is easily to be seen : but these relations still leave certain gaps be- 

 tween them, which are of sufficient importance to require that this order 

 should be divided into three tribes. 



TARDIGRADA. 



The Tardigrades form the first: they have a short face. Their name 

 originates from their excessive slowness, the consequence of a construc- 

 tion truly heteroclite, in which nature seems to have amused herself by 

 producing something imperfect and grotesque. The only genus yet in 

 existence is 



* The figures were conimunicated to us by M. Hamilton Smith and M. Brookes. 

 It is the animal described imder the name of Gerboise geante, 'hy De Blainville, in 

 Desmarets' Mammal. 315, and Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat. XIJI., 117, and figured in 

 the English translation of the present work, under that of Marmot Diana. 



^^ (a) Several Chinchillas have been presented to the Zoological Gardens in 

 London. As these were natives of the Alpine valleys of Chili, an early specimen 

 was treated in winter with artificial warmth, and even a piece of fiannel was placed 

 in its apartment; but this it shewed a disposition uniformly to reject. These 

 animals have proved to be tranquil, and capable of being easily tamed. Their food 

 consisted of dry herbage, various grains, and succulent roots. On one occasion, one 

 Chinchilla, recently presented, was placed in the same cage with another which had 

 been some time in the possession of the Society. The latter immediately flew upon 

 tlie new comer, who would have fallen a victim to jealousy, had not the keeper inter- 

 fered, and separated the combatants. This fact is in direct opposition to the descrip- 

 tion of Molina, who says that the Chinchillas ai-e gregarious. — Eng. Ed. 



