Texan Collared Peccary 381 



in pairs, or, at most, in small tamily parties ot trom eight to ten head 

 each. 



It is also a harmless and inoffensive creature, keeping to the densest 

 portions ot the forest and shunning encounters with human beings. Its 

 dwelling-place may be a hollow tree, a clump of bushes, a tussock of long 

 grass, or the deserted hole of some burrowing animal. Either this or the 

 next species ascends in some parts of South America to a height of 3000 

 or 4000 feet above sea-level. In search of food peccaries may be abroad 

 at any hour of the day or night ; their chief food consisting of roots, 

 truits, and hard palm-nuts, which their strong jaws enable them to crack 

 with hicility. Peccary pork is by no means of a high class, and unless the 

 gland on the back has been removed immediately after the death of the 

 animal is absolutely uneatable. 



THE TEXAN COLLARED PECCARY 



{Dicrjtyles tajacu ajigulatiis) 



The collared peccary ot Eastern Texas, on the evidence of the skull, 

 was described by the late Protessor E. D. Cope ^ as a distinct species, 

 although there can be little hesitation in regarding it merelv as a local 

 variety. Among other characteristic features of the skull are the angulated 

 nasal bones and the quadrituberculate last upper premolar ; that tooth being 

 tritubercular in the typical race. The colour of the hair is very dark. 

 This peccary is also found in North-Eastern Mexico. 



^ American Naturalist, vol. xxiii. p. 147 (£889). 



