1832-3.] THE TUCUTUCO. §1 
burrows hillocks of earth like those of the mole, but smaller. 
Considerable tracts of country are so completely undermined by 
these animals, that horses in passing over, sink above their fet- 
locks. ‘The tucutucos appear, to a certain degree, to be grega- 
rious: the man who procured the specimens for me had caught 
six together, and he said this was a common occurrence. They 
are nocturnal in their habits; and their principal food is the 
roots of plants, which are the object of their extensive and 
superficial burrows. This animal is universally known by a very 
peculiar noise which it makes when beneath the ground. A 
person, the first time he hears it, is much surprised ; for it is not 
easy to tell whence it comes, nor is it possible to guess what 
kind of creature utters it. The noise consists in a short, but not 
rough, nasal grunt, which is monotonously repeated about four 
times in quick succession: * the name Tucutuco is given in imi- 
tation of the sound. Where this animal is abundant, it may be 
heard at all times of the day, and sometimes directly beneath 
one’s feet. When kept in a room, the tucutucos move both 
slowly and clumsily, which appears owing to the outward action 
of their hind legs; and they are quite incapable, from the socket 
of the thigh-bone not having a certain ligament, of jumping even 
the smallest vertical height. They are very stupid in making 
any attempt to escape; when angry or frightened they uttered 
the tucu-tuco. Of those I kept alive several, even the first day, 
became quite tame, not attempting to bite.or to run away ; others 
were a little wilder. 
The man who caught them asserted that very many are inva- 
riably found blind. A specimen which I preserved in spirits was 
in this state; Mr. Reid considers it to be the effect of inflam- 
mation in the nictitating membrane. When the animal was 
alive I placed my finger within half an inch of its head, and not 
the slightest notice was taken: it made its way, however, about 
the room nearly as well as the others. Considering the strictly 
subterranean habits of the tucutuco, the blindness, though so 
* At the R. Negro, in Northern Patagonia, there is an animal of the same 
habits, and probably a closely allied species, but which I never saw. Its 
noise is different from that of the Maldonado kind ; it is repeated only twice 
instead of three or four times, and is more distinct and sonorous: when heard 
from a distance it so closely resembles the sound made in cutting down a small 
tree with an axe, that I have sometimes remained in doubt concerning it. 
