MAMMALIA—MEXICAN HOG. 301 
is a difference of conformation; the tail is extremely short, remarkably flat, 
and completely pendulous ; and its bristles are much stronger than those of 
the wild boar ; and, lastly, it has, upon that part of the back which borders 
upon the buttocks, an opening from which there is discharged an ichorous 
humor of a very disagreeable smell. The peccary is the only animal which 
has an opening in this region of the body. In the civets, the badger, and 
the genet, the reservoir for the perfume is situated beneath the parts of 
generation ; and in the nfusk animals we find it under the belly. 
The peccary may be rendered a domestic animal, like the hog, and has 
pretty nearly the same habits and natural inclinations. It feeds upon the 
same aliments; and its flesh, though more dry and lean than that of a 
hog, is not unpalatable. The female, however, breeds only once a year, 
and has but two young ones at a birth. 
These animals are extremely numerous in all the parts of South America 
There are two species ; 
THE COLLARED PECCARY,! AND THE WHITE- 
LIP Pp PE CCAR A 
Tue former is not a migratory animal, but usually lives in the forest 
where it is produced, and is generally met with in pairs or in small families. 
Tt is the smallest of the two species, seldom measuring three feet in length, 
or weighing more than fifty pounds. Its general color is a yellowish gray, 
with the exception of the legs, which are nearly black; and it has a some- 
what erectile mane on the back of the neck, composed of a row of long 
black bristles. 
The white-lipped peccary is much larger than the other species, as it not 
unfrequently reaches a length of three feet and a half, anda weight of a 
hundred pounds. It is thicker and stouter in its proportions, has a longer 
and thicker mane, and has less of the grayish tinge. “Unlike the former 
species, the white-lipped peccaries,” says the author of The Gardens and 
Menagerie of the Zoological Society, ‘‘ congregate in numerous bands, 
sometimes amounting, it is said, to more than a thousand individuals of all 
ages. Thus united, they frequently traverse extensive districts, the whole 
troop occupying an extent of a league in length, and directed in their march, 
if the accounts of the natives are to be credited, by a leader, who takes his 
station at the head of the foremostrank. Should they be impeded in their 
progress by a river, the chief stops for a moment, and then plunges boldly 
into the stream, and is followed by all the rest of the troop. The breadth 
of the river or the rapidity of the current appear to be but trifling obstacles 
in their way, and to be overcome with the greatest facility. On reaching 
the opposite bank, they proceed directly on their course, and continue their 
march even through the plantations which, unfortunately for the owners, 

1 Dicotyles torquatus, Cuv. 2 Dicotyles labiatus, Cuv. 
