36o TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE 



very opposite of a porcupine, for its fur is the softest 

 and most delicate known. This is the chinchilla, an ani- 

 mal about ten inches long, with a tail half that length. 



The agoutis, the paca, and the cavies, amongst which 

 is the guinea-pig, are also exclusively American species. 

 Only American also are two more noteworthy forms. 

 One of these is the so-called Patagonian cavj, which is 

 rather larger than a hare, an animal to which it 

 bears a decided resemblance from its long hind legs and 

 mode of progression. 



The other form is the capybara, the giant of the 

 rodent order. It is a stout bulky animal about 4 feet 

 in length, and covered with coarse hair. These animals 

 are to be mot with on the borders of rivers and lakes in 

 South America. They hide themselves amongst reeds 

 and other aquatic plants, and have little to fear save 

 from the jaguars, which are said habitually to prey 

 upon them, as also do the pumas. 



We will conclude this sketch of the great group of 

 gnawing animals by a notice of the hare and its alHes. 

 These animals differ from all other rodents in having in 

 the upper jaw a second and small pair of cutting teeth 

 placed directly behind the large ones. 



Of hares and rabbits there are about twenty species 

 spread over the northern hemisphere, one of them 

 extending downwards to South America. 



The common hare is found all over Europe except 

 Ireland, Norway and Sweden, and Northern Russia. 

 There it is replaced by the mountain hare, which, except 

 in Ireland, becomes snow white in winter, save the black 

 tips of its ears. The rabbit affords one of the best — and 

 worst — examples of the rapid diffusion of a species in 

 regions new to it, as in New Zealand, Australia and the 

 Falkland Islands. 



