CHINCHILLAS — VISCA CHA 3 7 1 



a number of stout spines mingled with the hair of the back. They are quite 

 peculiar to Central and South America. 



The typical representative of an exclusively South and Central 

 American family is the beautiful little chinchilla (Chinchilla 

 lanigera), a squirrel-like, large-eared rodent, about 10 inches long, with a tail of 

 half that length, remarkable for the softness of its pearl-grey fur. It inhabits 

 the higher Andes between southern Chile and the north of Bolivia, living in 

 large colonies amid scant vegetation, and digging its own burrows, which it 

 leaves during the day, when, however, it keeps in the shade of l^ocks. The short- 

 tailed chinchilla (C. brevicaudata) is a much larger and still little-known species, 

 inhabiting Peru. Still larger is Cuvier's chinchilla (Lagidium cuvieri), which 



CHINCHILLA. 



has only four toes on each foot, and inhabits the Andes of Chile, Peru, and 

 Bolivia, up to heights of 16,000 feet. 



To the same family belongs the viscacha (Lagostomus tricho- 

 dactylus), a large rodent with only three toes on the hind- feet. 

 A heavily built animal, with strong legs, rather short ears, and a bushy tail about 

 one-third longer than the body, the viscacha measures about 20 inches in length. 

 The short-haired fur is principally grey above, and white or yellowish beneath ; 

 but a black stripe, with a white one above it, runs from the point of the nose 

 to each cheek, and there is a russet-coloured band across the forehead. This 

 rodent ranges through the open pampas from the Rio Negro to Uruguay, and 

 during the dry season has nothing on which to feed save withered grass and thistles. 

 It generally congregates in " viscacheras " — collections of mounds formed by the 

 earth thrown out from the burrows. Each viscachera may contain from twenty 

 to thirty viscachas, and has at least a dozen galleries leading into chambers 



