386 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



applied to this animal are necessary." There is the added 

 circumstance that the nutria is much more prolific than the 

 chinchilla, so that with reasonable opportunity of breeding it 

 should maintain its numbers better. 



Live animals have also been exported to various European 

 countries for breeding purposes and appear to have flourished. 

 In France, where it is known as the "ragondin," the nutria 

 was bred in captivity, at least as early as 1882, by Pays- 

 Mellier at Champigny on Veude, and in 1888 by Edgard 

 Roger in the park of the Chateau de Naudy (Seine et Marne) . 

 In the two decades preceding the World War of 1914-18, 

 there were apparently a number of persons breeding these 

 animals in France, but the war seems to have put a stop to 

 such enterprises until about 1925, when the raising of this 

 animal was again taken up, especially in southern and south- 

 western France. The nutria seems to adapt itself readily to 

 conditions under captivity and reproduces normally. Eco- 

 nomic conditions during the past ten years in France appear 

 to have been unfavorable, however, for the hopes entertained 

 for financial profit from this source and most of these breeding 

 colonies have been given up. Many animals have escaped and 

 established the species as an -element of the wild fauna, which 

 may in time prove a valuable asset or the reverse. At present 

 the capture of such wild individuals is subject to the hunting 

 restrictions applied to other game (Bourdelle, 1939). 



Family DINOMYIDAE: Giant Rats 

 "PACARANA" 



DlNOMYS BBANICKII Peters 



Dinomys branickii Peters, Monatsb. Akad. Wiss. Berlin, 1873, p. 551 (Colonia Amable 

 Maria, Montana de Vitoc, Andes of central Peru). 



SYNONYMS: Dinomys pacarana Ribeiro, Arch. Escola Sup. Agric. Med. Veterin., vol. 

 2, pp. 13-15, 1919 (" Amazonas, Brazil "); Dinomys branickii occidentalis Lonnberg, 

 Arkiv Zool., vol. 14, pp. 49-53, 1921 ("Gualea, Ecuador"); Dinomys gigas 

 Anthony, Amer. Mus. Nov., no. 19, pp. 6-7, 1921 ("La Candela, Huila, Colombia"). 



FIGS.: Peters, 1873, pis. 1-4; Sanborn, 1931, pi. 5 (skull); Mohr, 1937b, figs. 1-9 

 (photographs). 



It is remarkable that this large rodent should continue to be 

 so rare in collections that, although first described in 1873 on 

 the basis of a specimen captured in the Andes of central Peru, 



