Something About Guinea-Pigs 



By W. E. Castle. 



Bussey Institution, Harvard University. 



A favorite pet animal with children, and one often seen in 

 bird stores, is the guinea-pig, a harmless, compact looking little 

 animal with a voracious appetite for vegetable food of various 

 sorts, and well known for its remarkable powers of increase. 



My friend, the sur- 

 georij says that the 

 guinea-pig is the most 

 important domesti- 

 cated animal of 

 American origin. 

 This statement will 

 surprise most per- 

 sons for two reasons, 

 first that it should be 

 considered an Amer- 

 ican animal, and sec- 

 ond that it should be 

 considered important. 

 Yet American the 

 guinea-pig unques- 

 t i o n a b 1 y is, and 

 further it is South 

 American. There 

 and nowhere else in 

 the world all its wild 

 relatives live. That 

 is all its near relatives 

 do; the more remote 

 ones include even 

 man. For the guinea- 

 pig is first of all a 

 mammal, as is man, 

 a hairy animal nurs- 

 ing its young with 

 milk. It belongs 

 further to the order 

 of rodents, the gnaw- 

 ing mammals, along 

 with rats and mice, rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, and wood- 



Fig. 1 (Top) — Self-Colored English Guinea-Pig. 

 Fig. 2 (Middle) — Dutch-Marked English Guinta-P 

 Fig. ;: (Bottom) — Albino English Guinea-Pig. 



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