412 



VERTEBRATA. 



nel was replaced, bo often was it dragged by the little animal into the outer compartment of its 

 cage, where it amused itself with pulling it about, rolling it up, and shaking it with its feet and 

 teeth. In other respects it exhibits but little playfulness, and gives few signs of activity; seldom 

 disturbing its usual quietude by any sudden or extraordinary gambols, but occasionally displaying 

 strong symptoms of alarm when startled by any unusual occurrence." A second specimen being 

 presented to the Society, it was put into the same cage as the preceding, when a scuffling fight 

 irred between the two, which led to their being kept apart. They were fed on dry hay and 

 clover, grain and succulent roots. Several litters have been produced in the London menagerie. 



The fur of this species is a considerable article of commerce. For muds, tippets, linings to 

 cloaks and pelisses, and trimmings for the same, it is sold extensively, and at ;i comparatively high 

 price. The annual import of the skins into England, in 1851, was 85,000. The skins which 

 come from Upper Peru are rougher and larger than those from Chili, but not always so beau- 

 tiful in color. (Jreat numbers of these animals are caught in the neighborhood of Coquimbo 

 and Copiapo, generally by boys with dogs, and sold to traders, who bring them to Santiago and 

 Valparaiso, from whence they are exported. The Peruvian skins are either brought to Buenos 

 Avres from the eastern parts of the Andes, or sent to Lima. The extensive use of this fur has 

 occasioned a very considerable destruction of these animals. 



Some naturalists have mentioned an animal of Peru rather larger than the preceding, but very 

 much resembling it, to which they give the name of C. brevicaudata, and believe it to be a dis- 

 tinct species of chinchilla ; but this is not yet decided. 



I'ELE S AXOMALUUE. 



TI1E ANOMALURES. 



Of this tribe there is the single genus, AN< ►MALTJRE, Anomalurus, and two species. Fraser's 

 Anomalure, A. Fraseri, the Pteromys Derbianus of Gray, is a most extraordinary creature. 



found in the island of Fernando Po. It resembles the flying-squirrel or Pteromys, in having a| 



