2(6- MAMMALIA. &LIRES. Porcupine. 



442 /3. Brawny Porcupine. — Hyjlrtx torofa. 



Dr Gmelin fuppofes the animal defcribed, under this name by Merrem, in Lefke's Magaz. zur Na- 

 turk. und Oekonomie, 1786, P. ii. 197. 198. may belong to the Long-tailed fpecies, as a variety; but, 

 though he quotes that author, he does not give any defcription of the animal. 



XXIV. C A V Y.— 23. C AV I A. 



Has two wedge-like cutting teeth in* each jaw; eight grinders 

 in both jaws. The fore feet have four or five toes; the 

 hind feet three, four, or five, each. The tail is either very 

 fhort, or entirely wanting. The collar bones, or clavicles* 

 are wanting. 



The animals of this genus feem to hold a middle place between the Murine quadrupeds and the- 

 Rabbit genus ; they have a flow, and moftly a kind of leaping, pace ; they never climb trees ; they 

 live on vegetable food ; and dwell in hollow trees, or in burrows which they dig in the earth. 



M'S 



1. Paca. — 1. Cavia Paca. i. 



Has hardly any tail; all the feet have five toes ; the fides are marked with rows of grey 

 or pale yellow fpots. Erxleb. mam. 356. Schreber, iv. 609. t. clxxi. 



Mus Paca, or Paca, with a very fhort tail. Syft. nat. ed. xii. i. 8i. n. 6. — Cuniculus Paca, or- 

 Taca, having external ears and a fhort tail, covered with coarfe dark brown hair, and marked on 

 the fides with rows of yellowifh white fpots. Briff. quad. 144. n. 4. Gronov. zooph. i. 4. n. 15. — 

 Pak, Cuniculus. minor paluftris, or Leffer Marlh Rabbit, marked with white. ftreaks. Barrere, Fr» 

 equin. 152. — Mus brafihenfis major, or Larger Brafilian Moufe, having the voice and hair like a 

 pig, called Paca by the- natives. Raj. quad. 226.. — Paca. Marcgr. Braf. 224. Pifo, Ind. 201. Jonft. 

 quad. t. 63. Sm. Buff, v.- 392. pi. clvii. — Laubba. Bancr. Guian. 76. — Spotted Cavy. Penn. baft. 

 of quad. n. 23.5. — Hog-rabbit. Wafer's voy. in Dampier. iii. 401.. 



Inhabits Brafil, Guiana, and probably in all. the warmer parts of America. — Lives in fenny plates 

 near rivers, burrowing in the ground, and keeping its hole exceedingly clean, to which it has always 

 three diftinct outlets : It. grows very fat, and is efteemed a great delicacy. The body and head mea- 

 fure about two feet in length ; the tail is like a fmall button, and fo extremely fhort, as to be hardly 

 apparent, meafuring only two or three twelfth parts of an inch ; the head is large and thick, with a 

 lengthened thick nofe, which is black at the tip ; the upper jaw is confiderably longer than the low- 

 er; the mouth is very fmall, and the upper lip is divided; the noftrils are very large, and the muzzle 

 is. garnifhed with long whifkers; the upper jaw has at each fide a fold of the ikin refembling a mouth; 

 the ears are fhort, broad, roundifh, and' covered with a fine and almoft imperceptible down ; the eyes 

 are large, prominent, and brownlfli ; the eye-brows, temples, and throat, are garnifhed with hairy 

 •-ASTt, ; the two cutting teeth in each jaw are very long, of great ftrength, and of a faffron yellow co- 

 lour l. 



