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Show 1894.] MAMMALS OP URUGUAY. 311 danger. They are said to be much wilder on the larger rivers, the Rio Negro for instance, probably because they are less accustomed to seeing any people except those w h o hunt them. No doubt the protection they were afforded in the Santa Elena camp contributed largely to their lameness there, but I always noticed they were less tame on the Arroyo Grande than on its tributary the Sauce. W h e n disturbed and rising to their feet the Carpinchos get upon their fore legs first. The hair of the Carpincho is scanty, not much more plentiful than some pigs' bristles, which it greatly resembles. Their colour varies from dull brown to bright chestnut, and this irrespective of age, or size, or season either, for I have noticed all colours from spring to late autumn ; smaller animals are, however, generally of the dull brown colour and vice versa. Their skins tan into splendidly thick, soft leather, which is used for belts, slippers, saddle-covers, &c. Like other thick-skinned animals, they like to wallow in mud. They work out hollows in the ground in which they wallow; these are known as Carpincho baths. The Carpincho does not go to ground, but lives on the bank^ of the rivers in such cover as it can find. It is capable of remaining under water and of proceeding for some distance under the surface; but when a herd has been disturbed at a laguna the members probably " lie low " by putting just their noses above water under the shelter of a bed of camelotes or other water-plants. I should imagine, from the size of its incisor teeth, that the Carpincho would be capable of inflicting a most serious bite. One day late in autumn, as m y friend's hounds were drawing the monte of the Arroyo Grande for a fox, we heard a tremendous " worry," but before the whip could get to them (and on his small active animal, really only a pony, he could, I believe, get anywhere) tbe pack went on. A pointer (one of a famous short-tailed breed), belonging to the estanciero at whose house we had met, came limping out of the monte with a fearful gash and incised bite in his neck, bleeding like a pig. It was said to be the work of a Lobo, but as I heard the snort of a Carpincho at the beginning of the worry I strongly suspect that it was the work of one of these beasts, of which there were a good many in that part of the river. The Carpincho, from its great weight and size, and thick, clumsy shape, would be a very awkward beast for dogs to hold, whereai they would probably master a Lobo if they had come to close quarters on land. The Carpincho's hind feet are furnished with a kind of hoof in three divisions, each ending in a point; and I should be very sorry to get a fair kick from the hind leg of a living or dying animal. Upon this point I quote from Senor Bollo, in whose book is depicted with photographic accuracy a group of eight Carpinchos in various life-like attitudes on the bank of a river. Senor Bollo writes:-" If the dogs follow it, it flies while it can ; when it is exhausted by the blood it has lost, it places itself among the camelotes (a kind of water-plant) and defends itself from its persecutors, giving them bites with its long incisors." W h e n thev take to the water they sometimes dive beneath the 21* |