Those
collected by myself have been named and described by Mr. Waterhouse
at the meetings of the Zoological Society. I must be allowed to
take this opportunity of returning my cordial thanks to Mr.
Waterhouse, and to the other gentleman attached to that Society,
for their kind and most liberal assistance on all occasions.) The
largest gnawing animal in the world, the Hydrochaerus capybara (the
water-hog), is here also common. One which I shot at Monte Video
weighed ninety-eight pounds: its length, from the end of the snout
to the stump-like tail, was three feet two inches; and its girth
three feet eight. These great Rodents occasionally frequent the
islands in the mouth of the Plata, where the water is quite salt,
but are far more abundant on the borders of fresh-water lakes and
rivers. Near Maldonado three or four generally live together. In
the daytime they either lie among the aquatic plants, or openly
feed on the turf plain. (3/5. In the stomach and duodenum of a
capybara which I opened, I found a very large quantity of a thin
yellowish fluid, in which scarcely a fibre could be distinguished.
Mr. Owen informs me that a part of the oesophagus is so constructed
that nothing much larger than a crowquill can be passed down.
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