which shows that you are an Irishman, pretend to
have been born in Chester.' 'I didn't say I was born there,' says he;
'I only asked your honour whether I was or not.'"

_Fraser's Magazine._

* * * * *

THE NATURALIST.

* * * * *

NUTRIA FUR.

[We quote the following account of Nutria from the _Dictionary of
Commerce_, by Mr. Macculloch, who believes it to be the first
description that has appeared in any English work, and acknowledges it
from the pen of J. Broderip, Esq., F.R.S., &c.]

Nutria, or Neutria, the commercial name for the skins of _Myopotamus
Bonariensis_ (Commerson,) the _Coypou_ of Molina, and the _Quoiya_ of
D'Azara. In France, the skins were, and perhaps still are, sold under
the name of _racoonda_; but in England they are imported as _nutria_
skins--deriving their appellation, most probably, from some supposed
similarity of the animal which produces them, in appearance and
habits, to the otter, the Spanish name for which is nutria. Indeed,
Molina speaks of the _coypou_ as a species of water rat, of the size
and colour of the otter.

Nutria fur is largely used in the hat manufacture; and has become,
within the last fifteen or twenty years, an article of very
considerable commercial importance. From 600,000 to 800,000 skins,
principally from the Rio de la Plata, are now annually imported into
Great Britain. It is also very extensively used on the continent.
Geoffroy mentions, that in certain years, a single French furrier (M.
Bechem,) has received from 15,000 to 20,000 skins.

The _coypou_ or _quoiya_ is a native of South America, very common in
the provinces of Chili, Buenos Ayres, and Tucuman, but more rare in
Paraguay. In size it is less than the beaver, which it resembles in
many points. The head is large and depressed, the ears small and
rounded, the neck stout and short, the muzzle sharper than that of the
beaver, and the whiskers very long and stiff. There are, as in the
beaver, two incisor teeth, and eight molar, above and below--twenty
teeth in all. The limbs are short. The fore feet have each five
fingers not webbed, the thumb being very small: the hind feet have the
same number of toes; the great toe and three next toes being joined by
a web which extends to their ends, and the little toe being free, but
edged with a membrane on its inner side. The nails are compressed,
long, crooked, and sharp. The tail, unlike