Considerable tracts of country are so completely undermined by these animals that horses, in passing over, sink above their fetlocks.

The tucutucos appear, to a certain degree, to be gregarious: the man who procured the specimens for me had caught six together, and he said this was a common occurrence.

They are nocturnal in their habits; and their principal food is the roots of plants, which are the object of their extensive and superficial burrows.

This animal is universally known by a very peculiar noise which it makes when beneath the ground.

A person, the first time he hears it, is much surprised; for it is not easy to tell whence it comes, nor is it possible to guess what kind of creature utters it.