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VISCACHA, or

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Originally appearing in Volume V28, Page 127 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.

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VISCACHA, or

VISCACHA, or ,BISCACHA, a large See also:

South See also:

AMERICAN

American burrowing rodent mammal belonging to the See also:

FAMILY

family Chinchillidae and commonly known as Lagostomus trichodactylus, although some writers prefer the name Viscacia. With the cheek-See also:

TEETH (O.E. Eel); plural of tooth, O.E. top)

teeth formed of a number of parallel plates in the manner characteristic of the family, the viscacha is distinguished from the other members of that See also:

GROUP

group by having only three See also:

HIND

hind toes; while it is also the heaviest-built and largest member of the group, with smaller ears than the See also:

REST (O. Eng. rest, reste, bed, cognate with other Teutonic forms, e.g. Ger. Rast, Riiste, rest, and probably Gothic Rasta, league, i.e. resting or stopping place)

rest. It has a See also:

long tail and shaggy See also:

FUR (connected with O. Fr. forre, a sheath or case; so " an outer covering ")

fur; the See also:

general See also:

COLOUR (Lat. color, connected with celare, to hide, the root meaning, therefore, being that of a covering)

colour of the latter being dark See also:

grey, with conspicuous See also:

black and See also:

white markings on the See also:

FACE (from Lat. fades, derived either from facere, to make, or from a root fa-, meaning " appear "; cf. Gr. cbatvstv)

face. Viscachas inhabit the South American See also:

PAMPAS (Span. La Pampa, from a Quichua word signifying a level open space or terrace)

pampas between the See also:

URUGUAY (officially the Oriental Republic of the Uruguay, and long locally called the Banda Oriental, meaning the land on the eastern side of the river Uruguay, from which the country takes its name)

Uruguay See also:

RIVER

river and the Rio See also:

NEGRO (from Lat. eager, black)

Negro in See also:

PATAGONIA

Patagonia, where they dwell in warrens covering from too to 200 sq. ft. and forming mounds penetrated by numerous burrows. The ground around the " viscachera " is cleared from vegetation, the refuse of which is heaped upon the See also:

MOUND

mound. Anything the rodents may meet with on their journeys, such as See also:

THISTLE

thistle-stalks or bones, are collected and deposited on the viscachera. Deep down in the burrows dwell the viscachas, from which in frequented districts they seldom emerge till evening, unless to drink after a shower. Their See also:

CHIEF (from Fr. chef, head, Lat. caput)

chief See also:

food is grass and seeds, but they also consume roots. When alarmed, they See also:

rush to their burrows, and if these are disturbed utter a growling See also:

sound. A pair of See also:

PRAIRIE (adopted from the Fr. prairie, a meadow-tract. Late Lat. prataria, Lat. pratum, meadow)

prairie burrowing owls (Speotyto) are almost invariably inhabit-ants of a viscachera (see See also:

RODENTIA

RODENTIA). (R.

End of Article: VISCACHA, or

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