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Show 1875.] DR. H. BURMEISTER ON A NEW DOLICHOTIS. 635 from the general route of travellers from the south to the north of the Argentine Republic, the fact becomes less surprising. This species exists only in the vicinity of the great Central-Argentine desert known under the name of Salina, a waste covered by saline exudations, which forms the lower central part of the country, unsettled and almost devoid of vegetation. This region is now penetrated by the new Central Argentine Railway ; and the specimens were killed near the stations Totoralejo and Recreo, about lat. 29° S. and long. 65° W . Therefore I propose to name the species DOLICHOTIS SALINICOLA, sp. n. (Plate LXIX.) The animal is well known to the inhabitants under the name Cu-nejo (rabbit), which name they alsq give to all the small species of Cavy which are common in more fertile parts of the country. It is esteemed by them good food ; and many of this new species have long been eaten by the Ganchos. Its is only its activity and its retreat into the most sterile parts of the country (where investigations are difficult to make), also its habit of living in old caves in the ground (which it shares with the true species of Cavia), that could have preserved its existence. The accompanying figure (Plate LXIX.) shows that this new species has the general appearance of the Patagonian Cavy, but has somewhat shorter legs and is of a smaller size, resembling in colours and figure the common rabbit. The two specimens which have come under m y notice are male and female, but are very much alike in appearance and colour; the female is somewhat more slender, and the head smaller. The whole length of the head and body is 18 inches, height 9 inches in its natural position; the head 4 inches long, the neck 2 inches, tbe ears 2 inches high; the fore legs 5 inches from the elbow to the end of the toes, and the hind legs 7£ inches from the knee to the beginning of the toes, of which the longest is 1 inch long. The fore feet have four small toes, every one with a short acute claw ; the hind feet are provided with three larger toes with long claws, the middle one being much longer than the other two. The soles are naked, each toe has a small pad beneath the nail, and a second of remarkable thickness (especially behind) further back. The hind foot has also a long naked black stripe on the back of the tarsus, commencing near the hock and descending to the central pad of the foot, but much narrower below. The tail is not entirely wanting, but is represented by a short conical naked wart. In all these particulars this species agrees with the other from Patagonia. Beginning the detailed description^ with the head, the whole figure is broader and the lips thicker than in the true Cavies. The whole nose is covered with short hairs, and only a small blackish margin of the nostrils is naked ; even the descending fold in the middle of the upper lip, so well known as a peculiarity in many of the Glires (and which sometimes occurs in a human being as a deformity), is covered with short white hairs. On the upper lip are many long black bristles, the longest of them being 3-4 inches |