32 
GUIDE TO TIIE 
animal, and the species is worthy of careful observation. 
The Agoutis, which form the genus Dasyprocia , resemble 
in figure the smallest of all the deer kind, known as 
mouse-deer, but their teeth and the other details of their 
structure, clearly indicate their true position as gnawing 
animals. They live on vegetable substances, such as roots 
and fruits, and having a voracious appetite, they some¬ 
times prove very destructive to cultivated crops, such as 
potatoes, yams and sugarcane. Like squirrels, they use 
their fore-limbs to carry the food to the mouth. They 
live among stones or rocks, or in the hollows of fallen 
trees in the forests where they bring forth their young on 
a bed of leaves, and as many as three at one time, and 
usually two broods in the year. In confinement they 
manifest but little intelligence ; and on several occasions, 
they have killed and partially eaten their own young, 
which seems to be due to irritability induced by a life of 
captivity. It is even said that when they are greatly 
irritated their hair falls out, as in similar circumstances 
the quills of a porcupine or hedgehog are said to do. 
Two species are represented in the Garden, viz. Dasy- 
procta isthmica and Dasyprocta prymnolopha , the former 
from Central America, and the latter from Guiana. 
The visitor will now, leaving this house at its southern 
end, follow the path leading to the left, passing to the 
right, an octagonal cage, under a Rain-tree, Pithecolobium 
saman, containing Pythons, and proceed to 
The Equine Enclosure 
on the opposite side of the carriage drive, and in this enclo¬ 
sure, which consists of seven divisions, will be found repre¬ 
sentatives of the Equidcu and the Camelidce. 
