The COMMON CHINCHILLA (_Chinchilla lanigera_), the skins of which are well known as furs, is a squirrel-like animal, nine or ten inches long, with a tail more than half this length. It has large rounded ears; its fore feet have five, and its hind four, toes. Its fur on the upper part is grey, elegantly marbled with dusky or black, on the lower surface yellowish-white; the tail is black above, and dirty white at the sides and beneath. The incisors are of a bright orange colour in front. The SHORT-TAILED CHINCHILLA (_C. brevicaudata_), a larger species, has the tail only three inches long. Its fur is of a general silvery-grey hue, tinged with black, especially along the back, and the tail has two dark bands on its upper surface. Both these animals inhabit Peru, and the former is also found in Bolivia and Chili. They are exceedingly abundant, notwithstanding the constant persecution to which they are subjected for the sake of their skins. They come out of their holes even in the daytime, but then always keep on the shady side of the rocks. Their activity is described as wonderful, and they will run with great rapidity up perpendicular walls of rock which seem to offer no hold for their feet. On the ground they are said to run very much after the fashion of our common Mice. The Chinchilla seems to breed nearly all the year round, and the female is said to produce from four to six young at a birth. [Illustration: CHINCHILLA.] The other two species of Alpine Chinchillas are placed in a separate genus, characterised by a more hare-like form, longer ears, and the presence of only four toes on both fore and hind feet. CUVIER’S CHINCHILLA (_Lagidium Cuvieri_) is about eighteen or twenty inches long, of an ashy-grey colour with a yellowish tinge above, and pale yellow beneath; the tail, which, with the hair, is nearly as long as the body is clothed beneath with short black hairs, and above with much longer bushy hairs, gradually increasing in length towards the tip, where they are black; a black line passes down the middle of the tail, and its sides are dirty white. The PALE-FOOTED CHINCHILLA (_Lagidium pallipes_), which is about the same size as the preceding, but has a shorter tail, is ashy grey, with a brownish tinge, becoming yellowish fawn colour beneath. The range of these animals seems to be the same as that of the true Chinchilla, but the second of them passes northwards into the mountains of Ecuador. In their habits they agree with the Chinchillas. FAMILY XIV.--DASYPROCTIDÆ (AGOUTIS).