205 



food is mice, which it is in constant pursuit of. The 

 female breeds twice a year, and has four or five 

 young at a birth. 



The quiqui (mustela quiqui) is a species of weasel 

 of a brown colour, thirteen inches long from the 

 nose to the tail. The head is flat, the ears short and 

 round, the eyes small and sunken, the nose cunei- 

 form, the nostrils compressed, with a white spot be- 

 tween them, the mouth broad like that of a toad, 

 and the legs and tail short. It has twelve incisors, 

 the same number of grinders, and four canine teeth, 

 and the tongue is very slender and smooth. The 

 paws resemble those of the lizard, and have five toes 

 armed with very crooked nails, it is naturally fe- 

 rocious, and so very irascible, that the inhabitants 

 give the name of quiqui to those persons who are 

 easily irritated. It lives under ground, and feeds 

 upon mice and moles like the cuja ; the female breeds 

 several times in a year, and always produces the 

 same number at a birth. 



The porcupine (histrix Chilensis) is found in the 

 northern Andes of Chili. The inhabitants kill them 

 for the sake of their skins. I have never seen this 

 animal, but from the description which I have had of 

 it, it differs little or nothing from the histrix prensile, 

 or coandu of Brasil. 



The culpen (canis culpseus) is a wild dog, or ra- 

 ther a species of large fox, differing but little from 

 the common fox, except in its size and its colour, 

 which is a dark brown, and in having a long strait 

 tail covered with short hair like that of the common 

 dog. From the point of the nose to the root of the 



