THE SPOTTED PACA 2O7 



shortness of the legs, almost touches the ground, 

 suggesting an over-stuffed sausage ; the tail is a 

 mere tubercle. The ground colour is blackish 

 umber (hence, perhaps, the term " sooty paca" 

 formerly applied to the animal) varying to fawn ; it 

 is handsomely marked with from three to five 

 longitudinal rows of spots, so that the general 

 coloration forcibly recalls that of the Indian chevro- 

 tain, the so-called " mouse deer " of the dealers. 

 The lower rows of spots often tend to form continuous 

 bands ; the last, on either side, frequently uniting 

 with the white of the belly. The type in which the 

 spots form continuous bands is perhaps the primitive 

 one ; at least, it has been suggested that spotted 

 animals have been derived from striped ones by 

 the stripes breaking up into spots, hence those pacas 

 which have confluent markings are less advanced, 

 evolutionally, than those which are spotted throughout. 

 The paca curiously resembles in coloration the young 

 tapir of the same regions. 



The spotted paca was the Mus paca of Linnaeus 

 (Syst. Nat. 12 ed., 1766). In 1802 Dr. Shaw, in 

 his " General Zoology," gave a very fair figure of 

 the "spotted cavy." It was represented by an 

 incomplete skeleton and a skull in the famous 

 collection of John Hunter, now in the Royal College 

 of Surgeons' Museum. At this institution may also 

 be seen a very interesting exhibit, consisting of a 

 paca skull (presented by Mr. Charles Stokes) which 



