128 



THE CABINET OF NATURAL HISTORY, 



at Barcelona, in Spanish, in the year 15.91. From an Eng- 

 lish translation of this work, printed at London, in 1604, we 

 extract the following sentence, which is all that relates to 

 the animal in question. " The Chinchilles is an other kind 

 of small beasts, like squirrels, they have a woonderfull 

 smoothe and soft skinne, which they weare as a healthfull 

 thing to comfort the stomacke, and those parts that have 

 neede of a moderate heate;" [as most "beasts" do; but the 

 concluding part of the extract shows that this is spoken of 

 the human natives, and not of the poor Chinchillas them- 

 selves;] "they make coverings and rugges of the haire of 

 these Chinchilles, which are found on the Sierre of Peru." 



We find these animals again mentioned, and nearly to the 

 same purpose, in " The Observations of Sir Richard Haw- 

 kins, Knight, in his Voyage into the South Sea, An. Dom. 

 1593," published at London, in a small folio, in the year 

 1622, and reprinted, three years afterwards, in the fourth 

 part of " Purchas his Pilgrims. " This hardy and adven- 

 turous seaman appears, notwithstanding the somewhat con- 

 temptuous manner in which he speaks of the "princes and 

 nobles" that " laie waite" for these skins, to have been 

 niucli of the same opinion with regard to their superior 

 quality and comfort. It is worthy of remark that he treats 

 them not as wool, in which light Acosta seems to have re- 

 garded them, but as fur. "Amongst others," he says, 

 (showing, by the by, as little respect for the niceties of 

 grammar as the translator above quoted,) "they havelittle 

 beastes, like untoa squirrel], but that bee is grey, hisskinne 

 is the most delicate soft and curious furre that I have scene, 

 and of much estimation, (as is reason,) in the Peru; few of 

 them come into Spaine, because difficult to be come by, for 

 that the princes and nobles laie waite for them, they call 

 this beast Chinchilla, and of them they have great abun- 

 dance." 



In the foregoing quotations the Chinchilla is only said to 

 be like a Squirrel: later writers appear to have confounded 

 them. Thus when Alonso de Ovalle, another Spaniard, 

 whose " Historical Relation of the Kingdom of Chili" was 

 published at Rome in 1646, says that "the Squirrels 

 [Ardas] which are found only in the Valley of Guasco, are 

 ash-coloured, and their skins are in great esteem for the 

 fineness and softness of the fur," he evidently means the 

 Chinchilla; for no species of Squirrel, whose fur is of any 

 value, is found in that country. The same may also be said 

 of an anonymous Italian author, (considered by some biblio- 

 graphers, but we believe erroneous!}^, to have been the 

 Abbe Vidaure,) who published at Bologna in 1 776, a Com- 

 pendium of the Geographical, Natural, and Civil History 

 of the Kingdom of Chili. This writer speaks of the Arda, 

 which is the Spanish word for a Squirrel, as a species of 

 Rat or Campagnol, of the size of a Cat, found only in the 



province of Copiapo, moderately docile, and covered with 

 ash-coloured wool, as close and delicate as the finest cotton. 



But this confusion of species becomes tolerable if com- 

 pared with another into which the same author has fallen 

 when he speaks of the Chinche, the most insupportably 

 ofiensive of all stinking animals, as having a remarkably 

 soft fur, which is made into coverlets for beds. The 

 responsibility, however, for the latter error must rest with 

 Buffon; who, after quoting Feuillee's excellent description 

 of that abominable beast, adds: " it appears to me that the 

 same animal is indicated by Acosta under the name of 

 Chinchilla, which is not very different from that of Chin- 

 che." How this great naturalist could have been led to 

 confound two animals so essentially distinct in every parti- 

 cular, of one of which he had a specimen in good preserva- 

 tion, while the skins of the other, mutilated it is true, but 

 still distinctly recognisable, might probably have been seen 

 in the warehouse of every furrier, we are at a loss to con- 

 jecture. The circumstance itself affords a striking proof of 

 the obscurity in which the history of the Chinchilla was 

 then involved, when the mere similarity of sound in the 

 names was the solitary argument advanced in favour of so 

 unfortunate a conjecture. The error was corrected by 

 D'Azara, who is, however, himself mistaken in regarding 

 the Chinche of Feuillee and Buflbn as his Yagouare, and 

 who adds nothing to what was already known with respect 

 to the true Chinchilla. 



Molina's Essay on the Natural History of Chili was 

 originally publislied in Italian at Bologna in 17S2. In the 

 preface the author candidly confesses that his materials are 

 not sufficiently complete for a general Natural History of 

 the country. They appear indeed to have consisted partly 

 of the recollections of a vigorous mind, and partly of such 

 imperfect notes as could only be made use of in the way of 

 hints to recall to the memory some of those minor points 

 which might otherwise have escaped it. It is obvious that 

 under such circumstances, however careful the writer may 

 have been to avoid mistakes, it is impossible to place in his 

 descriptions that implicit confidence to which his acknow- 

 ledged good faith would otherwise entitle him. In this 

 workhe describes theChinchillaasa species of theLinnasan 

 genus Mus, under the name of Mus laniger, by which ap- 

 pellation it was received into Gmelin's Edition of the 

 Systema Naturse, and continued to be known among natu- 

 ralists, until M. Geoffroy-Saint-Hilaire suggested that it 

 oughtratherto be regarded asaspeciesofthegenusseparated 

 by him from the Rats under the name of Hamster. This 

 opinion was immediately adopted by zoologists, and seems 

 to have been taken up by Molina himself, in a second 

 edition of his Essay, published in ISIO, which contains 

 some triflins; additions to his former article on the Chin- 



