2 
ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 
naturalist, with the exception of the Abbe Molina, a 
native of Chili, who has written expressly on the 
Natural History of that country, had seen an entire 
specimen, living or dead ; and the description given in 
his work added little of truth and much of error to the 
information that was to be derived from an inspection 
of the skins themselves in the imperfect state in which 
they are sent into the market. Still his account con- 
tains many particulars relative to the habits of the 
animal, which are not to be met with elsewhere, and 
we shall therefore extract it entire ; first, however, 
referring to such scanty notices in the works of former 
writers as appear to have been founded on original 
observation. 
The earliest account of the Chinchilla with which 
we have met is contained in Father Joseph Acosta's 
Natural and Moral History of the East and West 
Indies, published at Barcelona, in Spanish, in the year 
1591. From an English 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 thinge 
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 themselves ;] " 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 Hawkins, Knight, in his Voyage into the 
South Sea, An. Dom. 1593," published at London in 
