Thomas. REMARKABLE MOUTAIN VISCACHA 13 
OIT A REMAnEABLE MOUITTAIIT VISCACHA 
FROM SOUTHERN PATAGONIA 
BY 
Oidfield Tl>on)as, F. Z. 5. 
(British :\Iiis. Xat. History) 
The British ^luseum owes to its generous and indefatigable 
contributor, Mr. J. A. Wolft'sohn, C. M. Z. S., tlu'ee examples 
of a fine Viscaccia from a locality Jar south of any place 
where members of this group have been previously recorded. 
The animal is quite distinct from any hitherto known, and I 
propose to name it in honour of ist donor, to whom the Mu- 
seum is indebted for series of ail the mammals of (Central 
Chili. 
Yiscaccia Wolffsolnii, s}>. ii. 
A large species with long fur strongly suft'used with orange; 
tail very bushy. 
Size large, form stout and robust, the size appearing even 
larger than the truth owing to the very long rich fur, of which 
the woohhairs are over 35 mm. in length and the long hairs 
upwards of 50 mm. (leneral colour above of head and body 
approaching clay-colour(Rigdway), though brighter and clearer; 
the wool hairs, which give the [predominating colour, brownish 
slaty for four-fifths their length, their ends creamy buff dar- 
kening today-colour. Below, on the lower cheeks, throat, chest, 
and belly, the terminal colour becomes richer and redder, 
(*) 111 his paper <)ii the ii< >nieiiclature ot this liroup, Dr. F. Lahihe, 
(An. Sue. Cieiit. Ar^^eiit., IvXII, p. oí), 1906; seeiis to have come to quite 
correct coiichisioiis, iiichi(hng the allocation of Vismccia to the Moun- 
tain Viscachas, formerly known as Lagidiuiii. But with the fate that has 
as yet always befallen writers on this most <lifñcult and complicated 
subject, he has made a mistake in crediting tlie name Vkcaccia to 
Molina, for although the latter did say in 1<S10 that the animal ought to 
have a special generic name, he <lid not give it one, oidy using Viscaccia 
in such a way that it cannot ]»e distinguished from the term Viscaccia 
in a technically valid manner, with «Lepus chilensis > at ist type, choosa- 
ble as such whether by elimination or by the ñrst species rule. 
