Title: Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia
Identifier: brehmslifeofanim1896breh (find matches)
Year: 1896 (1890s)
Authors: Brehm, Alfred Edmund, 1829-1884; Pechuel-Loesche, Edward, 1840-1913; Haacke, Wilhelm, 1855-1912; Schmidtlein, Richard
Subjects: Mammals; Animal behavior
Publisher: Chicago : Marquis
Contributing Library: Internet Archive
Digitizing Sponsor: Internet Archive

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Native Country The Paca is distributed over the of the greater part of South America, from Paca. Surinam in Dutch Guiana through- out Brazil to Paraguay, and is also found among the West Indies on the southern Antilles. The lonelier and wilder the locality the more abundantly is it found; in all cultivated regions its numbers have been greatly reduced. It delights in the edges of forests, wooded banks of rivers or swampy places. There it scoops out a burrow from three to six feet deep and spends the day in it sleeping. At dusk it goes out in quest of food, paying an occasional visit to sugar cane and melon plantations, in which it does considerable damage. At other times it feeds on leaves, flowers and the fruits of various plants. It lives either in couples or singly. The female gives birth to one or at the most two young in the
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S^*i^ W*Csr THE PACA. This is the representative of a distinct sub-family among the Cavies. It is a forest animal, preferring damp localities, and a male and female usually live together.so that the picture appropriately shows two of the species. The tail is lacking, the head thick and the coarse hair is marked by five rows of spots as shown in the picture. (Caelogciiys paca.) middle of the summer; while they suckle she keeps them hidden in the burrow and even after they are weaned she keeps them near her for a few months longer. In Brazil the Paca is the commonest forest game except Agoutis and various species of Armadillos. Prince von Wied often caught it in traps in the for- ests. It is also hunted with hounds and brought to market as " royal game." There is no possibility of taking it in its burrow, but if the huntsman atten- tively examines the edge of plantations, he will soon notice the tracks of the animal under the close hedges of reed grass. There the sportsman puts out his noose, baited with an ear of corn, and the next morning he will usually find his trouble well repaid. The Paca is the best game animal of Brazil, probably being surpassed by no other in point of flavor and tenderness. The skin is so thin and tender that it is not pulled off, the entire ani- mal being scalded like a Pig. A Paca prepared in this way and having its head and feet cut off, looks strikingly like a young Pig. According to Kappler a hunted Paca which can not reach its hole some- times jumps into water, where it dives and remains submerged until its pursuer has withdrawn; he sup- poses that it swims off under the surface. The Paca Of late years the animal has been Well Known to carried to Europe quite frequentlv. Naturalists. Buffon had a female Paca, which was quite tame; it took up its abode behind the stove, slept during the day and ran about at night, and when it was shut up in a box, it at once began to gnaw. It licked the hands of friends and allowed them to pet it, stretching itself and signifying its pleasure by a low-voiced, faint sound. Strangers, children and Dogs it ,—./' , ^ x " -;t tried to bite. When angry, it grunted and gnashed its teeth in a quite ferocious manner. It was so little sensitive to cold, that Buffon be- lieved it could be intro- duced into and bred in Europe. It is contented with very few comforts, and requires neither spe- cially good food nor a well-equipped stable. I must agree with Buffon in regard to its hardi- hood in enduring cold; but I do not think that it would be profitable to transplant it to Europe. THE WATER PIG OR CAPYBARA. The Water Pig or Capybara (HydrocJiccrus capybara) may be consid- ered the most remark- able of Rodents in one respect; it is the largest and clumsiest member of the whole order. It justifies its name, for its shape and bristle-like pelt remind one quite forcibly of a Pig. Its dis- tinguishing features are: small ears, cleft upper lip, absence of a tail, short webs between the toes and strong hoof-like nails, as well as a very peculiar dentition. The incisors or gnawing teeth are of gigantic proportions, and are at least four-fifths of an inch wide, not very thick and characterized by several shallow grooves on their front faces; among the molars, the rearmost one is as large as the three preceding. The body is strikingly clumsy and thick, the neck is short, the head oblong, deep through from the upper to the lower sur- face, broad, blunt-muzzled and exhibits a peculiar appearance. The tolerably large, roundish eyes are quite prominent; the ears arc rounded at their upper ends, the front edges being turned over and the backs abrupt. The hind legs are much longer than the fore pair, the fore-feet are four-toed, the hind-feet three-toed. No particular coloring can be ascribed to the thin, coarse fur; an undecided brown with a

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