MAMMALIA. 
80 
Rio Negro (Lat. 41°) to the Strait of Magellan. It is very tame, 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, ‘ conejos,’ 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, Mamra. p. 358, Sp. 57 4. 
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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