PUNCTATED AGOUTIS. 
UNCOMMON PETS. 
A series of articles on the Care and Keep of Animals in Captivity. 
By P. WELLINGTON FARMBOROUGH, F.Z.S., B.E.S., etc. 
W., Wis08 AGOUM 
N animal seldom seen in captivity im this country, and yet one that has many 
things to commend it to the pet-keeper, is the Agouti—a South and Central 
American mammal. Agoutis are rodents of the family Dasyproctid@, and are found in 
very considerable numbers in the forests of the central countries of South America, viz., 
Brazil, parts of Guiana, and Peru, and in lesser numbers in Paraguay and Central 
America. There is even one species found in the West Indies. There are several 
species, all of which, however, are very similar, and the remarks which apply to one 
species apply equally well to the other kinds. Agoutis are not very large animals, being 
only about twenty inches in length when fully grown, and in coloration are chiefly of 
varying shades of orange-brown, gradually lightening to a yellowish-white tint on the 
under-parts. 
When in a state of freedom they are essentially forest-loving animals, and their 
food consists principally of a vegetarian or fruitarian diet; in cultivated districts 
they often do considerable damage to the growing crops of sugar cane, and, as a 
necessary consequence, are much persecuted by the landowners, who hunt them down 
and, if possible, drive them by constant persecution might away from the district. 
The common name for these animals in Brazil is Cutias. In habits they are 
nocturnal, and seldom make their appearance during the daytime, and this makes any 
attempt at their repression a rather hard task. To assist in the keeping down of these 
creatures, the owners of plantain and sugar-cane estates encourage the ocelots and other 
wild cats and the Brazilian wolf to remain in the neighbourhood, these being the 
common nocturnal foes of the agoutis. In addition to the estate owners and their 
natural foes, the natives persecute them and hunt them down for food, their flesh 
being esteemed a great delicacy by the Indians common to the Amazon basin, who 
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