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Show 1894.] MAMMALS OF URUGUAY. 309 Negro who took some interest in such things. I have since my return, however, received from him the skin and skull of one. The measurements of this specimen are: head and body 10 inches, tail 3 inches. Tbe fur is very soft and silky, and the hairs composing it on the back measure from *7 to -8 inch in length. Tbe general colour of the upper parts is light hair-brown, the individual hairs being tipped with this colour for -2 of their length; the basal part of each hair is mouse-colour. The chin and throat are of the same brown as the rest of the head, the latter being a shade darker than the back. The rest of the underparts are dirty white. The tail is clothed only sparsely with bristly hairs. The incisors are orange-colour, the lower ones measuring '5 inch from where they emerge from the jawr-bone to their tips. It has been kindly identified by Mr. Oldfield Thomas as Ctenomys brasiliensis, while a skull which I brought from a tuco-tuconale at Santa Elena, Soriano, has been referred by him to Ctenomys magellanicus. Not only were the colonies where the latter specimen was found smaller than those north of the Rio Negro (this might be occasioned by the nature of the ground), but the individual burrows and earths were smaller. From the description of some writers it might be imagined that anyone being on a tuco-tuconale, whether by night or by day, would hear continually the loud double or treble note from which the animal takes its name. I was not so fortunate, for although I have very often passed over and waited quietly about on tuco-tuconales I have only once heard the sound, and that very slightly. Yet the fresh workings showed that these places were inhabited. RESTLESS CAVY (Cavia aperea). The " Aperea," exactly like our fancy guinea-pigs, but of a grey mouse-colour, paler underneath, is numerous, frequenting pajonales, and, near estancia houses, strips of camp fenced in for the protection of young plantations. Here they make runs among the grass, coming out chiefly about sundown to feed. They are almost as destructive as rabbits, and where foxes (which witb the Huron are their chief natural enemies) have been killed down they are apt to increase inconveniently. The fur is long and pretty, but generally seems very loosely attached to the skin. The Aperea does not burrow in the ground, though it drives tunnels in the thickest pajonales ; nevertheless I have seen one, when surprised on a bare river-bank, go to ground in an old ant-hole, and it is probable that when the camp is very pelado they take refuge in any convenient shelter. I have known them run into a hole in the rocks and to find shelter about a shed erected for the benefit of some pure-bred stock. CAPYBARA (Hydrochcerus capybara). The Capybara or Carpincho, as it is always called in Uruguay, was found in some numbers along the Arroyo de Monzon, the Arroyo Grande, and some other smaller rivers near where I was PROC. ZOOL. Soc-1894, No. X X L 21 |
