MAMMALIA—GUINEA-PIG. 261 
THE GUINEA-PIG 1 
SSS 
eS SSS 
Sty tue > 
Tuovert originally a native of the warm climates of Brazil and Guinea, 
lives, however, and breeds in temperate and even cold countries, provided 
it is properly taken care of. Its skin is of little or rio value; and the flesh, 
hough people may, and actually do eat it, is very indifferent food; a cir- 
eumstance which might, in some measure, be removed, were they to be 
reared in warrens, where they might have air, space to range in, anda 
proper choice of herbs. Those which are kept in houses have nearly the 
same taste as the houserabbit; and of those which have passed the sum 
mer in a garden, the taste is less disagreeable, but is still insipid. 
The Guinea-pig is much less than the rabbit; its upper lip is only half 
divided; it has two cutting teeth in each jaw; large and broad ears; its 
hair is of different colors, white, varied with orange and black, in irregular 
patches. It has no tail, and is very restless, from which latter circumstance 
it derives the epithet affixed to one of its names. 
The growth of these animals is not entirely completed till the expiration 
of eight or nine months; though indeed it is in apparent bulk and fat that 
they chiefly increase till then, the developement of the solid parts being 
finished before the age of five or six months. The female never goes with 
young above three weeks; and she has been known to bring forth when 
only two months old. The first litter is not so numerous as the subsequent 
litters. It does not amount to more than four or five; the second amounts 
to five or six, and the rest to seven or eighi, and even to ten. or eleven. 
She does not suckle her young longer than twelve or fifteen days. Thus 
these animals produce at least every two months; and as those which are 
newly born produce in the same manner, their multiplication is astonishirz. 
In one year a thousand might be obtained from a single couple, did they 
not frequently destroy each other, and perish from the cold and wet. 
The Guinea-pig feeds on all sorts of herbs, and especially on parsley, 
which it prefers even to bran, flour, or bread. Of apples and other fruits it 
is also exceedingly fond. Like the rabbit, it eats precipitately, little ata 
time, but very often. It whines somewhat like a young pig. 
So cleanly are Guinea-pigs, that much of their time is spent in licking 
and smoothing the fur of each other, and of the little ones; and should the 
1 Cavia cobaya, Desm. The genus Cavia has two upper and two lower incisors; no 
canines ; eight upper and eight lower molars. Body thick; muzzle short, compressed ; 
eyes large; ears round; legs short, four toes on the fore feet, three on the hind fret, not 
palmated ; no tail: two ventral teats. 
