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Show VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 80 ZOOLOGY OF TilE ·mals Tll e Tucutuco is exceed- . ns on the less known am . t it is ditficult to be pro-together my ob~ervatl~eicrhbourhood of Ma1dona(~O, ~u Azara, '*' who has given ingl y abundant m :.~cd i ffi;ult to be seen, wh ~o at h~~: ';~..recti y agrees, states that cured, and stdl mo its with which ew·y thong I s '~he are so extremely co'":an ::lccotmt of tts hab ' t h more than one, althougl .l y u prefers a sandy sm1 s able to ca c l der grounu, an th he neveTrb wa 1' almost entire y un d phces even on e Tucutuco tves . f ·equents amp ' ' h m.o n. e tle inc1.m at.w n .' lut it sometimes 1 d but of great lengt • J • d t to be eep, · . t wtth a gen Tl burrows arc at no tl mouth into lnllocks no bOl·dcrs of lake . en'~ the ea•'lh being thrown up at ·a~le tracts of country are They arc scluom op , ue by the mole. Constdei t certain uegree, to . 1 ·gc as those ma . Tl ey appear, o a 1 . qtute so at . d b these auunals. 1 . 1 1 1 d caught six toget tet, underuune y l pecunens !a ' . C'omp etc Y 1 who procure( my s .. al in their habtts; be gregarious; fort lC man'on occurrence. They are noctull~ h t's the obJ'ect of . l l . as a comn. f 1 nts w uc . and be sm< t us w " d . . fforJed by the roots o p a , f which I opened I and their principal oo ~~ ~ l bunows. In the stomach o o~e egetable fibres. their exten ·.t vc n nd SllJJe1'11.C la llowish green so ft m aSS , a leW V could on I y •listi n~ish' ~~u: p t n~o~:zi ncs of food with in \heir n:7::o :: i ch it makes Azam stales that >ey ive•·sally known by a very pecu '"' 't is :ouch surp•·ised; "The Tucutnco ts Ull . the first time he hears I , I t kind of d Apc1son, 'bl t guesswm when beneath the gm•;~ .I cnce it comes, nor is it posS> e o . ~h nasal g•·unt, for it is not easy to ~hew ~oisc consists in a short, but ~~: ·~:~ ~runt is not so creature utters It. {' . time in quick successton, 1 . . the musical . · . ated about out h three fol owmg · . wluch IS Iepe 1 ore distinct than t e e Tucutuco ts loud, but a little lon?er, allltl:~ 'lS often as it is uttered. The1 nan:bis animal is time of the whole IS cons t :1, I all times of the day, w Jere h . 's feet. given in itm. tati.O n of the sounu. n ]' t] beneat one 1 ·d and sometimes c tree Y . 1 , which I 1oisc may be Jeai , l 1 l . and clumst ) ' abundant, t •e ' tl Tucutucos move bot' sow l l arc likewise When kept m a •·nom, '". ··d oction of their hind legs; and t '~. Reid who appc:ns owing to tl~c ot~tw.'u •n the smallest vertical he~ght. I. tha~ the · b1 f 1umpmg eve · · nforms me quite mcopa e ~ . I ich I bmught home in spH'lts, ' . ·wd this ex-dissected a hSP';;''.ml~:o:: is ~ot attached l>y a ligamentum£ t:~::; ~inder extresocket of t c ug 1 •kwa•·d movements 0 d b the lains in a satisfactory manner,_t IC a~ llow and are never covere Y. p · · ' Their teeth are of a broght wax ye ' d When eating any thmg, mtttcs. d to gnaw holes or cut woo . . in their fore li}JS: they are not ada pte l· . 1 . nd legs and held the ptece . ery . 't they rested on t Jetr u . 'l'hev weie v for instance boscm ' . h t drag it into some comer. h ttered paws; they appeared also to wts o ~ hen angry or frighteneu, t ey u stupid in making any attempt to escape, w .. A~_.>tra's y oyagcs dans 1' Amerique M en" d!' On al e ' vul . i. P· 324 . lltAUMALIA. the Tucutuco. Of those I kept alive, sevc,·al, even the first day, were quite tame, not attempting to bite OJ' to mn away; others were a little wilder. The man who caught them asserted that very many arc invariably found blind. A specimen which I preserved in spirits was in this state; Mr. Reid considers it to be the effect of inflammation iu the nicthating membrane. When the animal was alive, I placed my fin ge1· within h sl f an inch of i t.s head, but not the ligL test notice was taken of it: it made its way, however, about the room ncady as well as the othe•·s. Considc•·ing the subtenancan habit.s of the 'l'ucutuco, the blindness, though so frequent, cannot be a vc''Y serious evil; yet it appears strange that any animal should possess an organ constantly subject to injury. The mole, whose habits in nearly every l'CSpect, excepting in the kind of food, arc so similar, has an extremely small and protected eye, which, although possessing a limited vision, at once seems adapted to its mannel' of life. "Several species probably will be found to exist south of the Plata. At Baltia Blanca (Lat. 39°) an animal burrows undcl' ground in the same manner as the C. Braziliensis, and its noise is of the same general character, out instead of being double and repeated twice at short intervals, it is single and is uttered either at equal intervals, or in an accelerating order. I was assured by the inhabitants that these animals are of various colours, aud, therefore, 1 presume that the two kinds of noises pmceedcd f•·om two species. However this may be, they are extraordinarily numcmus: many square leagues of country between the Sierra Ventana anu Guetru-hcigue are so completely undermined by their burrows, that horses in passing over the plain, sink, almost every step, fctlork deep. At the Rio Negro (Lat. 41°) some closely allied (or same?) species utter·s a noise, which is repeated only twice, instead of three o1· four times as with the La Plata kind. The sound is, moreover, louder and more sonorous; and so closely resembles that made in cutting down a small tree with an axe, that I have occasionally remained in doubt for some time to which cause to attribute it. Where the plains of Patagonia a1·c very gravelly (as at Port Desire and St. Julian) the Ctenomys, I believe, docs not occur; but at Cape Negro, in the Stmit of Magellan, where the soil is damper and more sandy, the whole plain is tudded with the little hillocks, thrown up by this destructive animaL It occurs likewise south of the Strait, on the eastem si<.le of Tiena del hJCgo, whe1·e the land is level. Captain King brought lwme a specimen fi·01n the northern side of the Strait, which Mr. Bennett* has ca11ed C. Mag-eltanicus: it is of a different colour fi·om 81 the C. Brazitieusis. I unfortunately did not make any note regarding the noise of this southern species: but the circumstance of its existence rather corroborates my belief in there being several othet· kinds in the neighbourhood of the Rio * Transactions of the Zoological Society, vol. ii. p. 84. !If |