44 
MR.  E.  T.  BENNETT  ON  THE  CHINCHILLIDiE. 
parent,  and  was  noticed  in  the  course  of  the  same  year  by  Cuvier  in  the  second  edition 
of  his  'Regne  Animal'';  in  the  EngUsh  translation  of  which  work  by  Mr.  Griffith,  it 
had  also  been  previously  figured  and  described  from  the  same  specimen,  while  living, 
under  the  trivial  name  of  the  Marmot  Diana.  At  the  dispersion  of  Mr,  Brookes's  Mu- 
seum, both  the  skin  and  skeleton  were  sold,  and  passed,  I  believe,  into  the  hands  of 
M.  Temminck,  who  purchased  them  for  the  Leyden  Museum. 
In  the  'Annales  des  Sciences  Naturelles'  for  November  1830^,  appeared  a  paper 
by  MM.  D'Orbigny  fils,  and  Isidore  GeofFroy-Saint-Hilaire,  '  On  the  Viscacha  and 
the  Chinchilla,  regarded  as  the  types  of  a  genus  named  Callomys,  together  with  the 
description  of  a  new  species.'  The  authors  of  this  notice  seem  not  to  have  been  aware 
that  they  had  been  anticipated  with  respect  to  both  the  animals  named,  for  they  make 
no  reference  to  the  various  papers  respecting  them  published  in  this  country  during  the 
two  preceding  years.  The  generic  union  which  they  proposed  between  the  Viscacha 
and  the  Chinchilla,  was  founded  on  an  imperfect  knowledge  of  the  latter,  of  which  they 
knew  neither  the  teeth  nor  the  toes^.  Of  the  former  they  possessed  excellent  materials, 
and  have  given  a  good  description  ;  together  with  additional  particulars  of  considerable 
interest  relative  to  its  geographical  distribution,  habits,  and  mode  of  life.  The  sup- 
posed new  species  was  known  to  them  only  by  the  skin,  deprived  of  its  feet,  its  ears, 
and  its  tail :  of  it  I  shall  have  occasion  again  to  speak. 
In  August,  1831,  M.  Lesson  gave,  in  the  'Bulletin  des  Sciences  Naturelles"*,  an 
extract  from  his  '  Illustrations  de  Zoologie,'  containing  a  new  description  of  the 
Viscacha,  under  its  original  name  of  Lagostomus  trichodactylus,  which  M.  Kuhn  had 
previously  (in  a  Notice  of  the  paper  in  the  'Annates  des  Sciences  Naturelles,'  con- 
tained in  the  January  Number  of  the  '  Bulletin,')  restored  to  the  animal.  The 
'  Illustrations  '  themselves  have  since  appeared,  and  contain,  in  addition  to  the  de- 
scription, a  figure  of  the  animal,  and  representations  of  its  feet  and  of  its  muzzle. 
M.  Goldfuss  has  subsequently  published,  in  his  '  Naturhistorische  Atlas^,'  a  figure  of 
the  Viscacha,  and  representations  of  its  teeth,  copied  from  those  given  in  the  '  Linnean 
Transactions  '  by  Mr.  Brookes. 
For  the  history  of  the  Chinchilla  down  to  August  1829,  I  must  refer  to  my  ac- 
count of  that  animal,  published  in  the  first  Number  of  the  '  Gardens  and  Menagerie  of 
the  Zoological  Society';  to  which  I  can  add  nothing  of  earlier  date,  except  the  slight 
mention  in  the  extract  from  Jolis  already  given,  and  a  reference  to  a  figure  of  the 
'  Tom.  i.  p.  222.  ^  Tom.  xxi.  p.  282. 
'  During  the  passage  of  this  paper  through  the  press,  I  have  received,  by  the  kindness  of  his  venerable  and 
distinguished  father,  the  '  Notice  sur  les  Travaux  de  M.  Isidore  GeoflFroy-Saint-Hilaire,'  printed  on  the  occasion 
of  his  successful  competition  for  one  of  the  zoological  chairs  in  the  Academie  des  Sciences.  From  this  I  have 
the  pleasure  to  learn  that  M.  Isidore  GeofFroy  has  since  seen  reason  to  abandon  his  opinion  of  the  generic 
identity  of  the  two  animals. 
*  Tom.  xxvi.  p.  186.  '  Th.  iii.  p.  262.  t.  289. 
