Title: Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia
Identifier: brehmslifeofanim1896breh (find matches)
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; Pechuel-Loesche, Edward, 1840-1913; Haacke, Wilhelm, 1855-1912; Schmidtlein, Richard
Subjects: Mammals; Animal behavior
Publisher: Chicago : Marquis
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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THE RODENTS OR GNAWING ANIMALS. whether or not everything is quiet and safe, and for some time stay near their holes, before they set out in search of food. Physical Pecul- The movements of the Viscachas re- iarities of the semble those of Rabbits; but they Viscacha. are much their inferiors in speed, though they are of a more vivacious and playful dis- position. While grazing they play with one another nearly all the time, running, jumping over each other, grunting, showing their teeth, etc. Like Jackals, they carry home the most heterogeneous collection of objects they may find and pile them up in front of their holes in a confused heap, like toys, as it were. One finds bones and nests, and lost articles, which certainly are not of the slightest use to them, piled up before their holes, and when the Gauchos mysteriously lose anything they go to the nearest Viscacherias to look for the missing article.
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The Viscacha an The Viscacha is pursued less on Annoyance to account of the value of its flesh and Man- skin than it is for the purpose of ex- termination because of its annoying habits of bur- rowing. In those places where it is common, riding on horseback becomes extremeiy dangerous, be- cause the Horses often plunge through the roofs of its shallow tunnels, and if they do not fall and throw their riders or break their own legs they usually become very restive and greatly excited over it. The natives know the haunts of the Vis- cachas from afar by the presence of a small, wild, bitter musk-melon, of which the animals are said to be very fond. This plant is always found where there are many Viscacherias or vice versa—the lat- ter are always established where the plants spread their green tendrils. In this way it serves as a guide and warning for the horseman to avoid the danger- ous places. All expedients for driv- ing the Viscachas from jjl;;ftpiijpi the neighborhood of set- tlements are resorted to, and even fire and water, literally, are employed for this purpose. The grass around their holes is burned and they are thereby deprived of nourishment; their holes are inundated and they are forced to go out, straight into the jaws of the waiting Dogs. The South American Indians eat the flesh of the animal, and may also put the skins to account, though the latter are of much less value than those of the before men- tioned kindred species. Zbe Ibarea. THIRTEENTH FAniLY: LePORIDjE. As the last family of this order we consider CUVIER'S LAGOTI. This member of the Chinchilla family is about the size of a Rabbit, but has a long bushy tail, long whiskers that Puss might envy, and very long ears. It is a native of the mountains and is there- fore here correctly depicted among the boulders of its native Cordilleras. (.Lagidium cuvieri.) the Hares (Lcporidcz), a family with characteristics so distinctive that one From the interior of the burrows, however, the ani- mals remove anything not belonging there, as they also do the dead bodies of their own kind. Whether they gather and store up provisions for winter has not yet been decided. Their method of vocal ex- pression consists of a queer, loud and disagreeable snort or grunt, which can not be described. Propagation of Nothing definite is as yet known the Vis- about the method of their rcproduc- cacha. tion. The number of young is said to be from two to four in each litter, and they are believed to be fully grown at the age of from two to four months. Goering never saw more than a single young one with one of the old females. It always kept in the closest proximity to its mother, which seemed to be very fond of it and defended it in danger. If the young are captured and carefully tended, they become tame and may be kept as easily as Rabbits might regard it as a sub-order. They are the only Rodents which have more than two front teeth; for the sharp, broad gnawing teeth have on each side a true incisor, shaped like a small, blunt, nearly quadrilateral peg. This gives the denti- tion so peculiar a stamp as to isolate the Hares com- pletely. Each side of both jaws also contains five or six molars, composed of two laminae. The gen- eral distinctive anatomical characteristics of the Hares are: an elongated body with long hinder legs, a long skull with large eyes and long ears, five-toed fore-feet and four-toed hind-feet, thick, deeply cleft and highly mobile lips, furnished with stout whisk- ers on both sides, and a close, nearly woolly fur. Extensive The family embraces few species, Distribution of but is distributed over a great ex- Hares, tent of country. In the Australian belt alone the Hares would be absent were it not for

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