412 EXTINCT AND VANISHING MAMMALS 



feasible to raise vicunas on ranches and shear them for the 

 wool, which brings a good price, as much as $5 a pound. 

 This would require special sanction of the government con- 

 cerned. Like the llama and alpaca, this animal is subject to 

 such parasitic infections as lungworm, scab, and flukes, particu- 

 larly at lower altitudes (B. T. Colley, in Hit.). 



In earlier days the native Indians made much use of this 

 species. Tschudi (1844) describes how they carried out ex- 

 tensive drives, gradually working the animals into a narrow 

 funnel-shaped place among the rock walls, where many were 

 captured, their wool sheared, and the captives then freed. 



Family CERVIDAE: Deer 

 ECUADORIAN PUDU 



PUDU (PUDELLA) MEPHISTOPHILES (de Winton) 



Pudua mephistopheles de Winton, Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1896, p. 508. 

 FIGS.: De Winton, 1896, pi. 19; Lydekker, 1898, pi. 24, fig. 1. 



This small deer stands about 14 inches high at the shoulder 

 and is peculiar in its short metapodials, very short spikelike 

 antlers in the male, short ears, and practical absence of an 

 external tail. Very little is known of it, but since its habitat is 

 restricted and is likely to be further limited by various develop- 

 ments in the future, it may deserve mention here. 



The general color is a rich brown, due to a blackish-brown 

 ground color, sprinkled with bright rufous. Ears relatively 

 short, with long white hairs lining them. Face and legs nearly 

 black. 



Originally made known from a specimen taken on the paramo 

 of Papallacta, Ecuador, very few examples of this deer have 

 since found their way into collections. The Swedish consul 

 Soderstrom sent a specimen to the British Museum and one to 

 the Royal Museum at Stockholm, the latter with antlers about 

 78 mm. long. All these are from an altitude of about 12,000 

 feet at Papallacta, outside of which the species is unknown. 

 It is believed that even here it is uncommon. 



