AGENEIOSE& 



Aoorri. 





AGKS KIOSKS, in Ichthyology. genus of Abdominal MaUcoptery- 

 (ions fishes, separated from Ute Silura by Lacepede, Mid containing 

 two species, both from the frtwb-water lake* And riven of Surinam. 



KEN. [AXTELOFK, Strrpncarvt.] 

 WOOD. [AOA-|[.AHIACE&] 



NI ' s Pi's .the remarkable fostilgenus of Cnulafta usually found 

 with Afa/'ltm Jim-hit and other trilobites in tho lower 1'aUeozoic strata. 

 (Brongniart) Called Jlatttu by Dalman. It abounds new LUndeilo 

 and Christiania. 



! I'M. a fowl genus of Mammalia. (Kaiip.) 



A'OONUS, in Ichthyology, a genus of Acanthopterygious fishes, 

 fint separated from the Cotli by Block, and afterwards adopted, by 

 Lace'nede and Pallas, under the different names of Atpidtipkorvs and 

 PkalaiHfu'a. The greater number of the specie* belonging to the genus 

 Ayo*>u are found in the northern Pacific Ocean, particularly along the 

 coast of Japan, and northward as far as Behriug's Strait*. They are 

 all of diminutive sin, never exceeding nine or ten inches in length, ami 

 are uawbere used as an article of human food. One species only, the 



Afonta Arfifnarrinia. 



Pogge (A. Europffiu), inhabits our own coast, as well as the counts of 

 France, Holland, Iceland, and even Greenland ; it is also found in the 

 Baltic, but, according to Baron Cuvier, never in the Mediterranean, 

 though Brunnich expressly affirms the gpntrary. (Uittoire XatareUe 

 de Poitvnu, of Baron Cuvier and M. Voleaciennes.) 



AGOUTI (Datyprocta, Illiger; Chloromyt, F. Cuvier), in Zoology, a 

 genus of animals belonging to the class Mam malia and order Rodent ia. 



The most prominent zoological characters of the Agoutis are found 

 in the nature and conformation of the feet and toe*. The toes are 

 provided with large powerful claws, and yet the animals make no use 

 of them in digging or burrowing ; they are pretty long and perfectly 

 separate from one another, enabling them to hold their food between 

 their fore-paws, and in this manner to convey it to their mouth. Like all 

 other animals which are thus accustomed to use the fore-paws as hands, 

 they have a habit of sitting upright upon their hind-quarters to eat, 

 and frequently also assume the same position when they would look 

 around them, or are surprised by any unusual sound or occurrence. Their 

 food is exclusively of a vegetable nature, and consists most commonly 

 of wild yams, potatoes, and other tuberous roots : in the islands of tin- 

 different West India groups they are particularly destructive to the 

 sugar-cane, of the roots of which they are extremely fond. The planters 

 employ every artifice for destroying them, so that at present they have 

 become comparatively rare in the sugar inlands, though on the first 

 settlement of the Antilles and Bahamas they are said to have swarmed 

 in such countless multitudes as te. have constituted the principal article 

 of food for the Indians. They were the largest quadrupeds indigenous 

 in these islands upon their iiivt, li-covery. The same rule of geogra- 

 phical distribution holds good generally in other cases, namely, that where 

 groups of islands are detached at some distance from the mainland of 

 a particular continent, the smaller species of inhabitants are usually 

 found spread over both, whilst the larger and more bulky are confined 

 to the mainland alone, and are never found to be indigenous in the 

 mall insulated Inn Is. 



Though the Agoutis use their fore-paws as hapds to hold their food 

 whilst they eat, yet their toes are nevertheless rigid and inflexible, 

 and their claws large, blunt, and nearly straight. They are con~-- 

 qucntly deprived of the power of ascending trees ; and as they also 

 do not construct burrows, they wander at large among the woods, 

 sheltering themselves beneath fallen timber, or in the hollow 

 decayed tree. Here they produce and nurture their youn^, bringing 

 forth, according to some account*, three or four times in the year ; 

 according to others, never having more than a single litter in the same 

 season, and even that consisting of not more than two or three indi- 

 viduals. It is probable, however, from the amazing numbers ai 

 animals found in nil the hotter parts of South America, notwithstand- 

 ing the destruction made among them by small carnivorous animals, 

 as well a* by the Indians, and likewise from the close atlinit \ 

 they bear to the hare and rnliliit of our own country, that the Agoutis 

 are tolerably prolific. The young are brought forth with tin 

 closed, as in the case of most of the Rodentia and <'.,,, r,,ra ; but they 

 are covered with hair, or rather small bristles of the same colour as 

 the mother : they soon acquire the use of their limbs, and learn to 

 shift for themselves. 



The hind legs of the Agoutis are considerably longer than the fore, 

 and their pace is tolerably rapid fora slnul distance, lint they seldom 

 trust to speed of foot for their safety, but seek fur shelter and security 

 in the first hollow tree, or n t rock they meet with. II. ;.- 



they allow themselves to be captured, without any other complaint or 

 resistance than the emission of a sharp , note. The head of 



the Agouti is large, the forehead and face convex, the nose swollen and 

 tuberous, the ears round, short, and nearly naked, and the eyes large 

 and black. The hair is annukted in different degrees with black, 



yellow, and green ; it is generally ooarM and bristly, like th weak 



spino* of a hedgehog, though in one species it approaches in fineness 



to the fur of the rabbit ; tie tail is most commonly a mere naked 



stump or tubercle. the Acouchy alone attains any apparent 



length, and is covered with a few short scattered hairs. The teeth are 



twenty in nl: >.,, incisors ami i l.t molar*, four on each 



hiile.in e.u-li r are all nr. -uue sice, oval in 



figure, and with flat crowns, which -xlulut t l 



of the enamel as it penetrates the softer materials of wh 



of the tooth is composed. It is impossible from mere <1< 



convey an idea of tin- intricate figures which these convolutions assume ; 



. therefore. annexed figure, where a un.l ' 



diagram represent respe. .. !\ ile- up|>er and ].- j.i\\. .-.- 

 figures 1,_2, and 3, the appearances of n ::ii, rent ages, or 



iratii 



-:i- i- d 1 !!. n M ii. .:i. M > f 



No. 3, representing the teeth 

 I 



Teeth of the Agouti, from Cuvier' ' Dents des Minmiiifenc.' 

 shortly after they begin to wear : No ->, their intermediate state; and 

 No. 1, when very much worn. The teeth are exclusively adapted for 

 vegetable food ; they are essentially formed for grinding and In 

 not for cutting and tearing. The stomach and intestines tin i 

 which are always in harmony with the organs of mastication, are fitted 

 only for the digestion of vegetable substances. The flesh of 

 animals is white and tender ; it is a very common and favourite article 

 of food in South America, and is dressed like hare or rabbit. The 

 following sj>ecies arc distinctly known : 



1. The Common Agouti (l>ayprocta Aguli), sometimes called the 

 Long-Nosed or Yello\v-IJnni|>ed Caw, from its long nose and the preva- 

 lent colour of its back and shoulders, is the size of n middling h:nv, 

 being one foot eight inches in length, and about eleven orlu. li, n. -In - 

 high at the croup. The head resemble* that of the ral.b:t. the nose is 

 thick and swollen, the face arched, the upper lip divided, the ears 

 round and naked, the eyes large, the upper jaw con.-iderably longer 

 than the lower, and the tail a naked flesh-coloured stump. The hairs 

 .of the upper and fore juirt-( of the body are annulated with I 

 yellow, and black. animal a speckled yellow an. I 



appearance un tin- neck, head. !>aek. and -i.l. - : on tin- croup however 

 they are of a uniform golden yellow, nnieh longer tlmn on anj other 

 part of the body, aud directed backwards ; the breast, belly, and inner 

 side of the fore anus and thighs are light straw eolour. and tin 

 taches and feet black. The general lon L -ih of tin- hair mi the upp< r und 

 anterior parts of the body i." about all inch, that of tb- ['Wards 



of four inches long, and all, except of the legs 



and fit. ami that on the breast and bully, is of a still ! 

 partai iimlity of bristles than of simple I 



I Agouti ( /' iiher impro- 



perly culled the Crested Agouti by M Ceodi-ie, St. Ililairc. -inee the 

 hairs of its head and neck do not exceed those of tin- shoulders and 

 back in length. It is considerably smaller than the Common \ 

 being about the size of a rabbit, whil.-t that i roaches the 



dimeii general pro; D, however, 



are the same ; but the hairs of the back and sides, in-lead of being 

 annulated with various-coloured rings as in that species, are nearly 

 uniform block, whilst the long hair i >\ to : the 



1 lly and legs are equally covered with short dork liair. Thece is 



