290 



The Naturalist in La Plata. 



landowners, which has been more fortunate in its 

 results — or unfortunate if one's sympathies are with 

 the vizcacha — than the war of tne Australians 

 against their imported rodent — the smaller and 

 more prolific rabbit. 



The vizcachas on the pampas of Buenos Ayres 

 live in societies, usually numbering twenty or thirty 



^-%1 



Vizcachas. 



members. The village, which is called Vizcachera, is 

 composed of a dozen or fifteen burrows or mouths ; 

 for one entrance often serves for two or more distinct 

 holes. Often, where the ground is soft, there are 

 twenty or thirty or more burrows in an old vizca- 

 chera; but on stony, or " tosca " soil even an old 

 one may have no more than four or five burrows. 

 They are deep wide-mouthed holes, placed very 

 close together, the entire village covering an area 



