THE LONG-NOSED CAVY. 



noife like a young Pig. It is eafily tamed, if taken young, and becomes 

 very familiar. The female fele&s a retired place to bring forth her young, 

 where me conftru&s a bed of hay and leaves, and ufually brings two at a 

 time, which foon arrive at maturity. She breeds two or three times in the 

 year; and often removes her young for conveniency or greater fecurity. 



The Long-nofed Cavy having been very generally, though erroneoufly, 

 called by travellers, the Rabbit or Hare of the New Continent, it may not be 

 amifs to point out a few particulars in which it either refembles or differs 

 from thofe animals, with which we fhall conclude this account. It refembles 

 the Rabbit in fize and in the form of the head, except that the ears are 

 much fhorter. Like the Rabbit, the form of its back refembles an arch; its 

 hind legs are longeft, and the cutting teeth are exactly alike, as to form and 

 number. On the other hand, it difFers from the Rabbit in the ftrudlure 

 of its hair, which is not foft and downy, but hard and harm, like that of a 

 young Pig. The tail is likewife fhorter, and entirely without hair. Laflly, 

 the number of the toes is different, the Cavy having but three on the hinder 

 feet, whereas the Rabbit has five. Tt differs, likewife, very materially from 

 the Rabbit, in its habits and difpofitions : fo that, upon the whole, the 

 fuppofed refemblance arifes merely from the want of attentive obfervation. 



It is found in great abundance in Brafil and Guiana, where, Mr. BufFon 

 fays, the French drefs it like a fucking Pig, and efteem it excellent food ; the 

 Englifh who refide there drefs it like a Hare, with a pudding in the belly. 



