MAMMALIA. oy 



Rio Negro (Lat. 41°) to the Strait of Magellan. It is very lame, and commonly 

 feeds by day : it is said to bring forth two young ones at a birth. At the Rio 

 Negro it frequents in great numbers the bottoms of old hedges : at Port Desire it 

 lives beneath the ruins of the old Spanish buildings. One old male killed there 

 weighed 3530 grains. At the Strait of Magellan, I have seen amongst the Pata- 

 gonian Indians, cloaks for small children made with the skins of this little animal ; 

 and the Jesuit Falkner says, that the people of one of the southern tribes, take their 

 name from the number of these animals which inhabit their country. The 

 Spaniards and half-civilized Indians, call the Kerodon, ' eonejos,' or rabbit ; and 

 thus the mistake has arisen, that rabbits are found in the neighbourhood of the 

 Strait of Magellan." — D. 



1. Cavia Cobaia. 



Cavia Cobaia, Auct. 



Habitat, Maldonado, La Plata, {June.) 



" This animal, known by the name of Aperea, is exceedingly common in the 

 neighbourhood of the several towns which stand on the banks of the Rio Plata. 

 It frequents different kinds of stations, — such as hedge-rows made of the Agave 

 and Opuntia, or sand-hillocks, or again, marshy places covered with aquatic 

 plants ; — the latter appearing to be its favourite haunt. Where the soil is dry, it 

 makes a burrow ; but where otherwise, it lives concealed amidst the herbage. 

 These animals generally come out to feed in the evening, and are then tame ; but 

 if the day be gloomy, they make their appearance in the morning. They are said 

 to be very injurious to young trees. An old male killed at Maldonado, weighed 

 1 lb. 3 oz. In all the specimens I saw there, (during June, or winter,) I observed, 

 that the hair was attached to the skin less firmly than in any other animal I 

 remember to have seen." — D. 



2. Cavia Patachonica. 



Cavia Patachonica, Shaw, General Zoology, vol. ii., part 1, p. 226. 

 Dasyprocta Patachonica, Desmarest, Mamm. p. 358, Sp. 574. 



Dolichotis in Note, p. 359-360 



Chloromys Patachonicus, Lesson, Manuel de Mammalogie, p. 301. 

 Lievre Pampa, Azara, Essais sur l'Histoire Naturelle des Quad, de la Province 

 du Paraguay. French Translation, vol. ii. p. 51. 



In the form of the cranium, and in the structure of the teeth, this animal 

 possesses all the characters of the Cavies (Caviidce).* 

 Habitat, Patagonia. 



* See Proceedings of the Zoological Society for April, 1839, p. 61. 



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