HARE KIND. 165 



THE PACA. 



THE Paca is an animal also of South America, 

 very much resembling the former, and like it has 

 received the name of the American rabbit, but 

 with as little propriety. It is about the size of a 

 hare, or rather larger, and in figure somewhat 

 like a sucking pig, which it also resembles in its 

 grunting and its manner of eating. It is, how- 

 ever, most like the agouti, although it differs in 

 several particulars. Like the agouti, it is covered 

 rather with coarse hair than a downy fur ; but 

 then it is beautifully marked along the sides with 

 small ash-coloured spots, upon an amber-coloured 

 ground ; whereas the agouti is pretty much of 

 one reddish colour. The paca is rather more 

 thick and corpulent than the agouti ; its nose is 

 shorter, and its hind-feet have five toes, whereas 

 the agouti has but three. As to the rest, this 

 animal bears some distant resemblance to a rabbit ; 

 the ears are naked of hair, and somewhat sharp, 

 the lower jaw is somewhat longer than the upper ; 

 the teeth, the shape of the head, and the size of 

 it, are like to those of a rabbit. It has a short 

 tail likewise, though not tufted, and its hinder 

 legs are longer than the fore. It also burrows 

 in the ground like that animal, and from this 

 similitude alone travellers might have given it the 

 name. 



The p v aca does not make use of its fore-paws, 

 like the squirrel or the agouti, to carry its food 

 to the mouth, but hunts for it on the ground, and 



