244 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



the animal extends over the entire country of the Patago- 

 nians. 



The people of this region call it a Hare ; but it is more 

 fleshy and larger, says D'Azara, than the Hare of Spain, 

 and differs from it also very materially even in the taste 

 of its flesh. Two of these Pampa Hares, a male and a 

 female, are almost invariably found together, and they run 

 with a wonderful degree of force and velocity for a little 

 time; but they are speedily fatigued, and a well-mounted 

 horseman can overtake and catch them with very great 

 facility. This is generally performed either by entangling 

 them in a net, or striking them with a ball. 



The voice of this animal, heard during the night, has a 

 very singular, and by no means an agreeable, effect ; it is 

 a loud, sharp, and unpleasant cry, which may, says M. 

 D'A., be thus expressed, o, o, o, y: when taken, it also 

 cries in the same manner. The independent Indians eat 

 its white flesh, as likewise do the labouring people among 

 the Spanish South Americans ; but they find it excessively 

 inferior to that of the various kinds of Tatous. 



M. D'Azara was informed that this Hare generally pro- 

 duced the young in the vizcacheres, or burrows, dug by the 

 Vizchacha, or Cavia Acuschi of Linnaeus, and that when 

 pursued it always took refuge there : but, according to M. 

 D'Azara's personal observation, who hunted many of them, 

 none of them ever confided for its safety to any thing but its 

 own swiftness, although it might have availed itself of the 

 resource of many of those vizcacheres, or burrows. He never 

 either found them in their form in any other position than 

 couched after the manner of a Stag, and like that animal, 

 they generally run to a considerable distance. 



When taken young, they are easily tamed, will suffer 

 themselves to be scratched and patted, receive bread from 

 the hand, eat of every thing, are suffered to quit the house 



