THE GUINEA PIG. 



This neat little animal has stood its gronnd as a " Home 

 Pet " from as remote a period as the discovery of America by 

 Europeans. Never was an animal so misnamed, as it has nol 

 the remotest connexion with the pig family, and instead of 

 being found in Guinea it is a native of South Americaj 

 Domestication seems to have completely revolutionized the 

 appearance and habits of the Guinea pig. The colours borne by 

 the animal with which we are familiar, are never seen with the 

 wild animal busy with their domestic affairs among the 

 Bromelia Groves of Paraguay. Again, one of the chief chai^ 

 racteristics of the domesticated Guinea pig is its extreme 

 fecundity, six htters of eight each being no uncommon number 

 for this little animal to produce in the course of a single year, 

 whereas, in a wild state, according to Dr. Eeugger, it breeds 

 but once a year, and then brings forth but one, or at most two, 

 little ones. Darwin relates that the wild Guinea pig is com- 

 mon in the neighbourhood of several towns on the banks of the 

 Kio Plata, where it is known as the Aperea. Where the soil 

 is dry it makes a burrow, but otherwise it lies concealed 

 among the herbage. It geiierally comes out to feed in the 

 evening, as do the rabbits, between which and the mice the 

 Guinea pig would seem to form a connecting link. 



The Gninea pig is of little direct use to mankind. Its flesh 

 is xmfit for food ; and its Hde, on account of the shght attach- 

 ment of the fur to the skin, is unavailable for furriers' pnr- 



