THE PECCARY. 



PLATE XLV. 



Class Mammalia. Order Pachydermata : thick skinned. 

 Genus Sues. Species Dieotyles torguatus, and D. labi- 

 atus : Cuvier. 



THE Peccaries, although bearing a close affinity both in 

 external form and internal structure to the common hog, are 

 nevertheless distinguished from that well known beast by sev- 

 eral striking characters, of sufficient importance, when taken 

 in conjunction with their transatlantic origin, to justify their 

 separation as a distinct genus. The most essential of these 

 characters consist in the number and direction of their teeth, 

 the structure of their hinder feet, the form of their head and 

 snout, the shortness and flatness of their tail, and the exist- 

 ence of a peculiar glandular apparatus. They have in the 

 upper jaw four incisor teeth instead of six, the number found 

 in the pigs of the Old World ; and six in the lower. Of these 

 the two outer are separated from the intermediate ones by a 

 vacant space, and are smaller in size and of a more conical 

 form. Before the canines of each jaw there occurs another 

 interval, which is occupied in the upper, when the mouth is 

 closed, by the canine of the lower ; while that of the upper 

 projects from the mouth in the form of a tusk, and is not re- 

 ceived into any corresponding groove. These teeth are from 

 an inch to an inch and a quarter in length, strong, thick, and 

 triangular. They are succeeded by a third interval, behind 

 which, on each side of either jaw, are ranged six nearly equal 

 molars, instead of seven, the number met with in the common 

 hog. 



In the latter all the feet are well known to be formed of 

 two anterior toes, and these are, properly speaking, interme- 

 diate between two others which take a backward direction, 

 are much smaller in size, and placed so much above the level 



VOL. 1120. 



