392 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



said by Gay to prefer the warmer areas along the coastal 

 foothills and the inner valleys. It is thus somewhat of a low- 

 land animal. In the fur trade it passes under the names of 

 small, or coast, chinchilla, Chilean chinchilla, and bastard 

 chinchilla, and its fur is the least valuable. 



The Peruvian chinchilla is described as somewhat shorter- 

 tailed and larger in body (length of head and body, 14 inches ; 

 tail vertebrae 3 inches). The general tint is more silvery than 

 in the Chilean form, the back silvery gray with a clouding 

 of blackish. Its range is said by Prell to be at higher altitudes 

 on the western slopes of the coastal Cordillera of Peru at alti- 

 tudes of 8,000 to 10,000 feet. In the trade this is known as the 

 big chinchilla or royal chinchilla and is the most prized as fur. 



The Bolivian chinchilla has more rounded ears than the 

 two others and is short-tailed like the Peruvian race, but in 

 color it is with difficulty distinguished from the coast chinchilla, 

 even by the fur dealers among whom it passes under the names 

 Bolivian, La Plata, or Argentine chinchilla, after the ports 

 whence it is shipped out. The range of this race is the eastern 

 Andes and upper plateaus of Bolivia and northern Argentina, 

 especially the provinces of Jujuy, Salta, Catamarca, and La 

 Rioja. 



According to Ashbrook (1928) the chinchillas are very 

 swift in movement and in the early morning and late forenoon, 

 when they are abroad, are shy, dashing at once to the shelter 

 of their holes at the least alarm. Their curiosity, however, 

 often prompts them to reappear shortly after, to see the cause 

 of their fright. They generally feed actively early in the 

 evening, sitting on their haunches and holding the food in their 

 fore paws. They are fond of grains, seeds, fruits of shrubs, dry 

 and green herbs, mosses and lichens. "Of all fruits, they seem 

 to prefer the Algarrobilla, the seed of which is sweet and nutty, 

 although the pod is astringent. The pods are found stored in 

 their dens." 



Because of the extremely soft quality of the fur and its 

 delicate tints of gray, the chinchilla is the most valuable and 

 most sought after of all South American furs. Formerly so 

 numerous that travelers in their haunts could see "thousands 

 of them daily," they have now become so rare that in parts of 

 the range, especially in Peru, whence the royal chinchilla 

 comes, they are practically exterminated. Ashbrook (1928) 



