174 
RODENTS. 
Viscachas are essentially nocturnal. Mr. Hudson states that in winter they 
“ seldom leave their burrows till dark, but in summer come out before sunset; and 
the viscachera is then a truly interesting spectacle. Usually one of the old males 
first appears, and sits on some prominent place on the mound, apparently in no 
haste to begin his evening meal. When approached from the front he stirs not, 
but eyes the intruder with a bold indifferent stare. If the person passes to one 
side, he deigns not to turn his head. Other viscachas soon begin to appear, each 
one quietly taking up his station at his burrow’s mouth, the females, known by 
their greatly inferior size 
and lighter grey colour, 
sitting upright on their 
haunches, as if to command 
a better view, and indicat¬ 
ing by divers sounds and 
gestures that fear and curi¬ 
osity struggle in them for 
the mastery. With eyes 
A VISCACHERA. 
fixed on the intruder, at intervals they dodge the head, emitting at the same time 
an internal note with great vehemence; and suddenly, as the danger comes nearer, 
they plunge simultaneously, with a startled cry, into their burrows.” When driven 
to the recesses of their burrows they utter a peculiar kind of growling sound. 
The viscacha is a far from prolific animal, the female producing in September 
a single litter, which usually contains two, but occasionally three young. As the 
animal takes about two years in reaching maturity, the vast numbers in which it 
existed on the pampas, previous to a war of extermination waged against it by the 
agriculturists, is not a little remarkable. 
The habit of accumulating the remains of its food around the entrance of its 
