THE OCTODONT TRIBE. 159 



has five toes, which in the hind-limb are connected by webs. The fur of the 

 coypu is long, but beneath there is a dense and soft under-fur. The colour of the 

 upper-parts is a mixture of dusky and brownish yellow, the sides and under-parts 

 being pure brownish yellow, the tip of the muzzle and chin white, the feet dusky 

 brown, and a patch below each ear yellow. 



The coypu is found in the rivers and lakes of South America, on 



both sides of the Andes, from Chili and Peru to about the 48th parallel 

 of south latitude. In the Chonos Archipelago, according to Darwin, coypu 

 are found exclusively in the channels and bays separating the various small 

 islands. 



. In general appearance and habits the coypu is not unlike a 



beaver, being thoroughly aquatic, and making its burrow in the banks 

 of the rivers and lakes it frequents. When, however, the banks are not sufficiently 

 high to allow of this, a platform-like nest is constructed among the reeds. The burrow 

 is generally three or four feet in depth, and expands at the end into a chamber of 

 some two feet in diameter. They are generally found in pairs, but in Argentina 

 the writer has seen them coming out in large parties in the evenings to swim and 

 sport in the water. Here they utter peculiarly mournful cries ; the females, at the 

 proper season, being each accompanied by some eight or nine offspring, which 

 endeavour to obtain a seat on their parent's back, those that are unable to attain this 

 position of security swimming behind. Although a first-rate swimmer, the coypu is 

 said not to be an adept at diving ; and its movements on land are always awkward 

 and ungainly. These animals usually select for their haunts the stillest parts of 

 the rivers, lakes, or ponds ; and their food consists of the foliage, seeds, and roots 

 of the water-plants growing hard by. In the Chonos Archipelago, where they 

 make their burrows in the forest at some distance from the shore, they are said, 

 however, to subsist partly on molluscs. 



In Argentina Mr. Hudson states that at one time the coypu became very scarce 

 owing to the numbers killed for their fur. An enactment was then passed forbid- 

 ding the killing of these animals ; the result being that they " increased and multi- 

 plied exceedingly, and, abandoning their aquatic habits, they became terrestrial and 

 migratory, and swarmed everywhere in search of food. Suddenly a mysterious 

 malady fell on them, from which they quickly perished and became almost extinct." 

 The under-fur of the coypu is an important article of commerce, the average 

 number of skins annually collected varying from three hundred thousand to five 

 hundred thousand. In Argentina the coypu is universally known as the nutria, 

 which is properly the Spanish name for the otter ; the same term being applied in 

 commerce to the fur. 



THE HUTIAS. 

 Genus Capromys. 



The large Rodent known as the hutia-couga (C. pilorides), is one of a group of 

 four or five species confined to the West Indian Islands, where they appear to be 

 the only indigenous members of the order. They are all allied to the coypu, from 

 which they are distinguished by their arboreal habits and more rat-like appearance, 



