HYDROCHCERUS CAPYBARA. 211 



fifthly, as that in the urethra is of a different colour (but differs very- 

 little in consistence), and that difference is owing to a mixture of semen, 

 that would show that no semen is mixed with the secretion that is 

 within the bags : sixthly, the mucus that is within the bags is the same 

 as that which is within the prostate gland ; for they have no prostate, 

 if the gland which I take to be the prostate be not it : seventhly, the 

 vasa deferentia do not open into these bags, nor communicate therewith, 

 excepting by means of the urethra 1 . 



The female has but two nipples, which are between the thighs ; but 

 the udder is not of the hanging kind, but is flat and spread on the abdo- 

 minal muscles. One that I have had two young ones at one time, 

 which were very perfect animals ; more so than most animals ; they 

 were capable of running about ; saw, and had teeth. 



[The Capybara (Hydrochverus Capybara, Erxl.).] 



The Water Hare, Le Cahiai of Buffon, vol. xii. p. 384. 



This animal is about the bigness of a half-grown sheep 2 ; its colour 

 is of a greenish yellow : the hair is thin and strong like that of the 

 agouti, or of a hog: the skin of the animal is exposed through the 

 hair. The head is like that of a guinea-pig, la paca, and agouti, viz. 

 large for the size of the body. The ears are like those of the same 

 animals. The belly swells out laterally. There was no appearance of 

 a tail when it was alive, only a kind of knob covered with a horny 

 substance. The legs have very little hair upon them. There are four 

 toes to the fore-feet ; the outer one being the smallest and shortest. 

 There are three toes to the hind-feet. The toes are strong and broad, 

 something like the toes of a stork, having flat, short, and strong nails 

 upon them. The toes can be drawn apart from one another ; but they 

 are almost united to their ends by a strong thick membrane which 

 makes a very broad foot. The sole of the foot is covered by a hard and 

 thick skin, and in the hind feet this hard skin is continued to the os 

 calcis, so that they walk or sit upon the whole hind-feet. This brings 



1 [In these remarks may be discerned the basis of Hunter's Observations on the 

 G-lands called ' vesiculae seminales,' in the ' Animal Economy,' 8vo. 1837, p. 28.] 



2 [The skull of this animal is No. 1975, Hunt. Osteol. Series, and shows it to hare 

 been an immature individual. A male capybara, from Cross's menagerie, which I 

 dissected April 1837, measured from the tip of the snout to the stump of the tail, 

 3 feet 4 inches ; the greatest girth was 2 feet 7£ inches : the weight of the animal 

 was 68 lbs. A wild capybara has been killed, weighing 98 lbs. This species is now 

 the giant of the rodent order ; but there were larger, e. g. Castoro'ides, amongst the 

 extinct kinds.] 



p2 



