138 MAMMALIA. 
Lepus ogotonna, Pall. Glir. III, Schreb. ccxxxix. (The Grey 
Lagomys). A very light grey, with yellowish feet; a little larger 
than the preceding; nestles among heaps of stones, in the fissures 
of rocks, &c., where it collects hay for the winter. 
Lepus alpinus, Pall. Glir. II, Schreb. ccexxxviii. (The Lago- 
mys Pica). Size of a Guinea-Pig, and of a yellowish red. Inha- 
bits the loftiest eminences of mountains, where it passes the summer 
in selecting and drying the plants of which it makes its provision for 
the winter. Its hay-stacks, which are sometimes six or seven feet 
high, are a valuable resource for the horses of the sable hunters. 
The fossil bones of an unknown species of Lagomys have been 
discovered in the concretions or osseous breccia of Corsica. Cuv. 
Oss. Foss. IV, p. 199. 
After the two genera of Porcupines and Hares, come the Rodentia, 
united by Linneus and Pallas, under the name of Cavia; but in which it 
is impossible to find any other common and positive character than that 
of their imperfect clavicles, although the species of which they are com- 
posed are not deficient in analogy between them, as respects the structure 
of their body and their habits. They are all from the new continent. 
Hyprocuarus, Ereleb. 
The Cabiais have four toes before and three behind, all armed with 
large nails, and united by membranes; four grinders throughout, of which 
the posterior are the longest, and composed of numerous, simple, and 
parallel lamine; the anterior lamine forked towards the external edge in 
the upper, and towards the internal one in the lower teeth. Only one 
species is known, the 
H. capybara; Cavia capybara, L.; Capybara, Marcg.; Capiy- 
goua, Azzar.; Cabaia, Buff. XII, xlix. (The Capybara). Size of 
Siam Pig; the muzzle very thick; limbs short; hair coarse, and of 
a yellowish brown; no tail. Inhabits the rivers of Guiana and the 
Amazon, where it lives in troops. It is excellent game, and the 
largest of the Rodentia. The Beaver only approaches it in size. 
| Cavia, Lllig.—Anama, Fr. Cuv. 
The Cobayes, vulgarly called Guinea-Pigs, are miniature representa- 
tions of the Cabiais; but their toes are separated, and each of their 
molars has only one simple lamina, and one that is forked on the outside 
in the upper ones, and on the inside in the lower. The species best 
known, 
C. cobaia, Pall.; Mus porcellus, L.; Buff. VIII. i. (The Gui- 
nea Pig) is now very much multiplied in Europe, where it is brought 
up in houses, because its odour is thought to drive away rats. Like 
all domesticated animals, it varies in colour. There is reason for 
believing it to proceed from an American animal called Aperea, 
which is of the same size and form, but with a uniform reddish-grey 
fur. It is found in the woods of Brazil and Paraguay. 
