5°6 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
is a greenishryellow in parts slightly mottled with black, while below it is auburn 
and the mustache is black. It has beautiful fur, and its flesh is edible. It lives 
on the western slopes of the Andes from i8° to 30° south, in rocky and stony 
places, where it digs a two-storied burrow, and dines on herbs and shrubs. 
The Indians prize it for its fur and its flesh. 
The Pale-footed Chinchilla {Lagidium pallipes) belongs to the same genus 
and is like the Alpine chinchilla in most of its characteristics, but it makes its 
home only in the rock valleys of Chili. 
The Woolly Chinchilla ( Chinchilla lanigera ) is the one that gives us the 
well-known chinchilla fur. It is a small creature, being but six inches in 
length from the nose to the root of the tail, which is only moderately long and 
covered with soft fur. It looks very much like a rat; its rich fur is so thick 
and fine as to resemble wool, and some of its threads so long that they may 
be spun. It is very mild and gentle, never bites, and likes to be petted. It 
is very cleanly, and free from any offensive odor. It digs burrows and is- 
sociable in its habits. It is to be found in Chili and Peru. Its fur makes sl 
valuable article of commerce, and has thus occasioned great slaughter of these 
animals. They are hunted by boys with dogs and sold to the traders. 
The Short-tailed Chinchilla (C. brevicaudata ) is larger than the preceding^ 
species, and lives in Peru, but exhibits few differences in either habits or ap¬ 
pearances. 
The Camas Rat-pouched Gopher ( Geomys borealis ) has a stout, thick body 
seven or eight inches long, and a tail about two and a quarter. It is of a 
reddish-brown above, a darker shade below. It has a cheek pouch upon each 
side, about three inches deep and lined with hairs. These it uses as its larder. 
They open externally so that the food has to be taken out of these receptacles 
and carried round to its introduction into the mouth. They subsist upon a. 
vegetable diet and take their meals sitting upon their haunches, using their 
fore paws as hands. The pouches are used also as baskets to convey their 
marketing home to their burrows, which they dig in sandy places, and which 
are deeper than those dug by the mole. The nest is rounded, made of soft sub¬ 
stances, is lined with hair which the mother plucks from her own body, and is 
located at a place where several of these underground galleries converge. In 
this nest the female deposits from five to seven young ones, during the month 
of March or April. These animals not only fight human beings when attacked, 
screaming and seeking to bite the intruder, but they fight among themselves 
with their snouts, as hogs do. They are to some degree nocturnal in their habits, 
and in the colder parts of the district which they inhabit, become dormant dur¬ 
ing the winter. It can travel nearly as fast backward as forward. It is trapped 
and destroyed to prevent the damage that it does to gardens and orchards. The 
ears are scarcely noticeable, and the eyes very small; its fur is soft and thick. 
It is to be found in Canada, and is spread westward to the Pacific Ocean, and 
in some localities as far southward as Arkansas. 
The Southern Pouched Rat, or Gopher (G. tuza), differs from the Canada 
pouched rat in the fact that its cheek-pouches open into its mouth, but in many 
other respects resembles it. It is about eight or nine inches long, brownish- 
yellow above and gray beneath. It lives in Georgia, Alabama and Florida. 
The Chestnut-cheeked Pouched Rat, or Gopher (G. castanops) , is of a pale 
yellowish-brown color, and is about eight iuches long, and has its home on our 
southwestern prairies. 
