236 



COLLARED PECCARY. 



Tail 



From knee to end of hoof 



Hind-knee to end of hoof 



Spread of fore-feet .... 



Girth across the centre of body 



Spread of mouth when fully extended 



Breadth between the eyes 



Feet. 



Inchcft, 







Oi 







H 







% 







H 



2 



5 







5^ 







2% 



HABITS. 



The accounts that have been handed down to us of the habits of this 

 species by old travellers, Aldrovanda, Fernandez, Mons. De la Borde, 

 Marcgrave, Acosta, and others, who furnished the information from which 

 BuFFON, Brisson, Ray, and Linnaeus, drew up their descriptions of the 

 Mexican hog, are not to be fully relied on, inasmuch as their descriptions 

 referred to two very distinct species, the white-lipped peccarj% {D. labia- 

 tus,) : nd the subject of the present article. Neither Linn^us nor his con- 

 temporaries seem to have been aware of the difference which exists be- 

 tween the species, and although Buffon was informed by M. De la Borde 

 that another and larger species existed at Cayenne, he does not appear to 

 have drawn any line of distinction between it and our animal. 



D'Azara, who vi ited South America in 1783, (Essais sur I'Histoire 

 Naturelle des Quadrupfides de la Province du Paraguay, Paris, 1801,) 

 endeavoured to correct the errors into which previous writers had fallen, 

 and gave an account of the present species, which, although somewhat 

 unmethodical, is nevertheless of such a character that it may on the 

 whole be relied on. He commences his article on the " taytetou," as he 

 designates this species, by first giving correct measurements ; afterwards 

 he describes the colour of the adult and young, points out the distinctive 

 marks which separate this species from the white-lipped peccary, which 

 he calls " tagnicate," and then gives a tolerable account of the habits of 

 the species no^v under consideration. From the accounts which travellers 

 have given us of the Collared Peccary it appears that this species is gre- 

 garious, and associates for mutual protection in pretty large families ; it 

 is however stated by D'Azapa that the white-lipped peccary is more dis- 

 posed to congregate in very large herds than our animal. 



Although they are usually found in the forests and prefer low and 

 marshy grounds, like common hogs, Peccaries wander wherever they can 

 find an abundance of food, often enter the enclosures of the planters, and 

 commit great depredations on the products of their fields. 



When attacked by the jaguar, the puma, the wolf, the dog. or the hun- 



