MAMMALIA. 
91 
very white; it is, however, rather tasteless and dry. Fall grown animals weigh 
between twenty and twenty-six pounds. ’ — D. 
Hydrochcerus Capybara. 
Hydroclioerus Capybara, Auct. 
“ These animals are common wherever there are large rivers or lakes, over that 
part of the South American Continent which lies between the Orinoco and the Plata, 
a distance of nearly 1400 miles. They are not generally supposed to extend south 
of the Plata ; but as there is a Laguna Carpincho (the latter being the provincial 
name of the Capybara) high up the Salado, I presume they have sometimes been 
seen there. Azara does not believe they ever frequent salt water ; but I shot one 
in the Bay of Monte Video ; and several were seen by the officers of the Beagle 
on the Island of Guritti, off Maldonado, where the water is very nearly as salt as 
in the sea. The one I shot, at Montevideo, was an old female; it measured from 
tip of snout to end of stump-like tail, 3 feet 8i inches, and in girth 3 feet 2 inches. 
She weighed 98 pounds. I opened the stomachs of a couple, which I killed near 
a lake at Maldonado, and found them distended with a thin yellowish-green fluid, 
in which not more than a trace of a vegetable fibre could be distinguished : it is in 
accordance with this fact, that a part of the aesophagus is so narrow, as I am in- 
formed by Mr. Owen, that scarcely anything larger than a crow-quill can be pas- 
sed down it. The shape of the dung of these animals is a short straight cylinder, 
rounded at the extremities ; when dried and burnt, it affords a pleasant smell like 
that from cedar wood. These animals do not burrow holes, but live amongst the 
thickets, or beds of rushes near rivers and lakes. At Maldonado they often may 
be seen during the day, seated on the grassy plain in small groups of three and 
four, at the distance of a few yards from the border of the lake, which they fre- 
quent. I must refer the reader for a few more details respecting their habits, to 
my Journal of Researches. — D.” 
