10 
GUINEA FIGo 
to five on tbe Linder. The tail is either very shorty 
or altogether wanting. And they have no collar 
bones. 
They seem to hold a middle place between the 
murine quadrupeds and .the hares. Nearly all the 
Species, which are seven in number, have a slow, 
and some of them a leaping pace. Their habita- 
tions are burrows ; which they form beneath the 
roots of trees, or, in the ground. They live en- 
tirely on vegetable food, and are all natives of 
America : two or three species, however, are found 
also on the old continent. 
Guinea pig. 
The guinea pig is a native of the warmer cli- 
mates,* but has been so long rendered domestic, 
and so widely diffused, that it has now become 
common in every part of the world. There are 
few unacquainted with the figure of this little 
animal ; in some places it is considered as the 
principal favourite ; and is often found even to 
displace the lap-dog. It is less than a rabbit, and 
its legs are shorter ; they are scarce seen, except 
when it moves ; and the neck also is so short, that 
the head seems stuck upon the shoulders. The 
ears are short, thin, and transparent ; the hair is 
like that of a sucking pig, from -whence it has 
taken the name ; and it wants even the vestiges of 
a tail. In other respects, it has r some similitude 
to the rabbit. When it moves, its body lengthens 
like that animal ; and when it is at rest, it gathers 
up in the same manner. Its nose is formed with 
the rabbit dip, except that its nostrils are much 
farther asunder. Like all other animals in a do- 
mestic state, its colours are different ; some are 
w hite, some are red, and others both red and white. 
It differs from the rabbit in the number of its 
