1875. | DR. H. BURMEISTER ON A NEW DOLICHOTIS. 635 
from the general route of travellers from the south to the north of 
the Argentine Republic, the fact becomes less surprising. 
This species exists only in the vicinity of the great Central-Argen- 
tine desert known under the name of Salina, a waste covered by 
saline exudations, which forms the lower central part of the coun- 
try, unsettled and almost devoid of vegetation. This region is now 
penetrated by the new Central Argentine Railway ; and the specimens 
were killed near the stations Totoralejo and Recreo, about lat. 29° 
S. and long. 65° W. Therefore I propose to name the species 
DoLICHOTIS SALINICOLA, sp. n. (Plate LXIX.) 
The animal is well known to the inhabitants under the name Cu- 
nejo (rabbit), which name they also give to all the small species of 
Cavy which are common in more fertile parts of the country. It 
is esteemed by them good food; and many of this new species have 
long been eaten by the Ganchos. _ Its is only its activity and its retreat 
into the most sterile parts of the country (where investigations are 
difficult to make), also its habit of living in old caves in the ground 
(which it shares with the true species of Cavia), that could have pre- 
served its existence. 
The accompanying figure (Plate LXIX.) shows that this new species 
has the general appearance of the Patagonian Cavy, but has some- 
what shorter legs and is of a smaller size, resembling in colours and 
figure the common rabbit. 
The two specimens which have come under my notice are male 
and female, but are very much alike in appearance and colour; the 
female is somewhat more slender, and the head smaller. 
The whole length of the head and body is 18 inches, height 9 inches 
in its natural position; the head 4 inches long, the neck 2 inches, 
the ears 2 inches high; the fore legs 5 inches from the elbow to the end 
of the toes, and the hind legs 73 inches from the knee to the beginning 
of the toes, of which the longest is 1 inch long. 
The fore feet have four small toes, every one with a short acute 
claw ; the hind feet are provided with three larger toes with long 
claws, the middle one being much longer than the other two. The 
soles are naked, each toe has a small pad beneath the nail, and a 
second of remarkable thickness (especially behind) further back. 
The hind foot has also a long naked black stripe on the back of the 
tarsus, commencing near the hock and descending to the central pad 
of the foot, but much narrower below. 
The tail is not entirely wanting, but is represented by a short co- 
nical naked wart. In all these particulars this species agrees with 
the other from Patagonia. Beginning the detailed description with 
the head, the whole figure is broader and the lips thicker than in the 
true Cavies. The whole nose is covered with short hairs, and only a 
small blackish margin of the nostrils is naked ; even the descending 
fold in the middle of the upper lip, so well known as a peculiarity in 
many of the Glires (and which sometimes occurs in a human being 
as a deformity), is covered with short white hairs. On the upper lip 
are many long black bristles, the longest of them being 3-4 inches 
