16 
AGOUTI, 
but swims and dives remarkably we!!, and keeps 
under water so long, that the hunters frequently 
give up for lost those they have been in chase of. 
It feeds on fruits and vegetables, especially sugar- 
canes ; but is very dexterous in catching* fish, 
which it brings on shore, and eats at its ease. 
It sits up, and holds its prey with its fore feet, 
feeding like an ape. 
They keep always in pairs, a male and a fe- 
male, or else in great herds ; feed in the night, 
and commit great ravages in gardens. They 
make a horrible noise, like the braying of an ass. 
They are of a gentle and peaceable disposition, 
easily made tame, and grow very familiar. Their 
flesh is eaten ; it is tender, but has an oily and 
fishy taste, in its wild state, in consequence of 
its food. Buffon thinks they might be propaga- 
ted in Europe. The female has but one young 
one at a birth. 
Agouti. 
This animal is found in great abundance in the 
southern parts of America, and has by some been 
called the rabbit of that continent. But, though 
in many respects it resembles the rabbit, yet still 
in many more it differs, and is, without all doubt, 
an animal peculiar to the new world only. The 
agouti is about the size of a rabbit, and has a head 
very much resembling it, except that the ears are 
very short in comparison. It resembles the rabbit 
also in the arched form of its back, in the hind 
legs being longer than the fore, and in having four 
great cutting teeth, two above and two below ; 
but then it differs in the nature of its hair, which 
is not soft and downy as in the rabbit, but hard 
and bristly like that of a sucking pig, and of a 
reddish brown colour. It differs also in the tail* 
