CAPYBARA AND GUINEA PIGS 
veal-like flesh is well liked by both Indians and whites, who 
also kill it because of its depredations on their fields of sugar 
cane, plantains, etc. The capybaras are thoroughly aquatic 
in their habits, swimming wholly immersed except their faces, 
diving well, and having the trick of hiding for a long time 
among aquatic weeds with only their nostrils poked above 
the surface; their feet are hairless, partly webbed, and look 
more like a duck’s than a mammal’s. Darwin’ and Bates” 
describe them at length, and Aplin ® has recorded their 
habits in Uruguay, where they are seen usually in small herds, 
and utter a curious grunting bark, or, when they are pleased, 
a queer little quavering warble, very pretty. They may be 
tamed. 
The capybara belongs to the cavy family, of which there are 
a dozen or so other kinds, — all small, gregarious, nocturnal 
animals, inhabiting open regions from the Andes of Peru to 
the plains of Patagonia, some always digging burrows in con- 
nected warrens, others sometimes doing so and again con- 
tenting themselves with natural hollows; while the small 
Brazilian rock cavy, or hoki, lives in crevices of rocks, where 
the Indians seek it eagerly for the pot. The most familiar one, 
probably, is the aperea of the La Plata Valley, whence, it 
used to be said, came our guinea pigs— which are not pigs 
and have nothing to do with Guinea or even with Guiana! 
It is now known that these amusing pets are a modified form 
of Cutler’s cavy of Peru, which has black fur with the flanks 
and under parts brownish. This one was domesti- guinea 
cated by the Peruvians before their conquest by Pige 
the Spaniards, and Pizarro’s men sent live specimens to Spain. 
Since then the cavies have been bred by fanciers into many 
varieties of size, color, and character of coat; and books 
describe the show points of these pets, but do not explain 
who gave them the absurd name they bear."® It would be 
better to call them cavies. 
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