ORDER RODENTIA. 241 



inquired for this skull at the College, and have seen a mis- 

 cellaneous collection there, but without the good fortune of 

 finding it. This, however, is one of the countless instances 

 to prove that our general communications with all parts of 

 the world have, in fact, though unsolicited and unsought 

 for, produced us very many interesting novelties in zoology 

 which our national inattention to the science has caused 

 us to neglect and forget. 



We shall not repeat here the characters which have 

 induced the separation of the Agoutis into a distinct genus. 

 The Common Agouti and the Acouchi have been long 

 known, and have been referred, by different naturalists, to 

 different genera, till the modern reformations in zoology 

 induced the generic separation of these animals. Ray and 

 Linnaeus placed them in their comprehensive genus Mus; 

 Gmelin, Erxleben, and Boddaert referred them to Cavia; 

 Brisson, to Lepus, or, rather, Cuniculus; Illiger proposed 

 the genus Dasyprocta to distinguish them, and F. Cuvier 

 that of Chloromys. 



The Agouti is about the size of a Hare ; but the head is 

 more assimilated to that of the Guinea-pig, by the thickness 

 of the muzzle, and flatness of the top of the head ; the ears 

 are large, short, and nearly naked; the body is thicker 

 behind than before; a mere conical tubercle, without hair, 

 stands in the place of a tail ; the anterior feet have four 

 distinct toes, and a fifth, distinguishable only by its nail ; 

 the hinder feet, about a third longer than those before, have 

 but three, but they are thicker than the others, armed 

 with flattish triangular nails ; the animal has them almost 

 always half bent ; the hairs are moderately long and close to 

 the body ; on the crupper they are rather longer than else- 

 where ; the colour on this part is bright orange-yellow ; 

 the upper part of the body is coloured with yellow-brown 

 and blackish; the under part is yellow, inclining to gray 



