THE SPOTTED PACA 2OQ 



pockets for carrying food to their winter storehouses ; 

 but a similar use cannot be assigned to the sacs of 

 the paca, as the opening of the sac is both narrow 

 and unyielding, while even if the aperture were 

 dilatable the sac itself, enclosed by firm bone, could 

 not be expanded to receive any cargo. However, the 

 animal also has true cheek pouches of considerable 

 size, so that it is probably a " packer" in more senses 

 than one. 



The spotted paca is widely distributed in South 

 America, from Surinam to Paraguay, and also occurs 

 in Tobago and Trinidad in the West Indies. It 

 inhabits forests and damp, low lying-regions, where 

 it burrows to a depth of four or five feet ; there are 

 said to be three openings to each burrow. Strictly 

 nocturnal, the paca goes solitary, or at most in pairs; 

 it swims and dives well, and can run fast. Its thin 

 skin and harsh pelage render it commercially 

 valueless ; but in February and March the animals 

 become very fat, and are then taken for food, the 

 flesh being first scalded like a sucking pig's and then 

 roasted. The paca subsists on leaves, fern-roots, 

 and fruits, sometimes attacking sugar plantations ; it 

 grunts like a pig, and roots in the earth like that 

 animal. 



Perhaps the first paca brought alive to Europe 

 was the individual which Buffon kept for some time 

 in his house, and became tame and familiar. A 

 specimen was living in the London collection as 



