ORDER RODENTIA. 239 



six weeks or two months old ; the period of it is uncer- 

 tain ; the number at a birth are four, six, eight, or twelve, 

 according to the age and strength of the mother ; thus, as 

 Buffon states, several hundreds may be bred from a single 

 pair in the course of one year. 



These animals are bora covered with fur, and the eyes 

 open, and in eight or nine months acquire their greatest 

 degree of developement. Lactation does not last more than 

 twelve or fifteen days, when the young are driven to shift 

 for themselves by the male, and the female becomes again 

 ready to breed. 



The Wild Aperea does, in all probability, present traits 

 of character more or less differing from those of its domes- 

 ticated descendant ; and as the modifications the animal has 

 undergone in person by domestication are so very striking, 

 it is probable that its intellects may have been equally 

 modified. The domesticated race has doubtless been 

 tamed for a long series of years, and that by the original 

 inhabitants of South America ; for M. F. Cuvier states 

 that it appears by the original paintings of Aldrovan- 

 dus, that toward the middle of the sixteenth century, 

 the Guinea-pig had the white, red, and black patches, 

 which distinguish it at present ; it must at that time also 

 have undergone all the modifications of which its nature 

 was capable, since two centuries and a half have induced 

 no more. 



The colour of the Guinea-pig is varied with white, red, and 

 black, in large irregular patches, differing in their relative 

 situations in different specimens. The fur is very short, 

 elose, and shining ; the naked parts are flesh-coloured, as 

 well as the parts of the skin covered with hair ; the circle 

 of the iris is brown. The animal is too well known t© 

 need the illustration of a figure. 



Although naturalized among us, the Guinea-pig is not 

 Inured to our climate ; it is only by keeping it from cold 



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