255 



eight young. The cuy, though it resemble the 

 rabbity avoids its society;, and never copulates 

 with it. It is very much afraid of cats and rats,, 

 which appear to be its destroyers. In Peru there 

 is an animal which bears the same name, and is 

 also domesticated, but as I have never seen it, I 

 cannot determine whether it is of the same spe- 

 cies or otherwise. It may be proper, however, 

 to observe, that ciiij is a general name in America 

 for a number of little animals like rabbits, which 

 are mostly of the genus of the cavy. 



The viscaclia (lepus viscacia) is an animal re- 

 sembling both the rabbit and the fox. It is rather 

 larger, but has the head, ears, mouth, whiskers, 

 teeth, feet, and nearly the same manner of feed- 

 ing as the rabbit. In its colour and tail it re- 

 sembles the fox ; the hair on the body is very fine 

 and soft, and is capable of being advantageously 

 employed for many purposes. The ancient Pe- 

 ruvians made beautiful cloths of it, and it is now 

 used in Chili for the manufacture of hats. The 

 tail, with which \i deft;nds itself against its ene- 

 mies, is very long, turned up, and covered with 

 long coarse hair. The z-rscacJia breeds in the 

 same manner as the rabbit. It lives w dcr ground, 

 in a burrow consisting t)t two stories, which 

 conimuuicale by moans of a vvii;tiii}g siair-way; 

 the first storv serves frr a ma aziiie for its pro- 

 visions, <he other for a place vi rcfidviscc for it- 

 self and ils yoLii:^:. I:i Ihi^; it rc]:i:ui; diirhijr the 



