AGOUTI (Datyproeta, Illiger; Ch/cremes, F. Clivier), in Zoology, a genus of animals belonging to the clams Man/ma/in and order Rodentia.
The most prominent zoological characters of the Agoutis are found in the nature and conformation of the feet and toes. The toes are provided with large powerful claws, and yet the animals make no use of them in digging or burrowing ; they are pretty long and perfectly separate from one another, enabling them to hold their food between their fore-paws, and in this warmer to convey it to their mouth. Like all other animals which are thus accustomed to use the forepaws as hands, they have a habit of sitting upright upon their hind-quarters to eat, and frequently also assume the same position when they would look around them, or are surprised by any unusual sound or occurrence. Their food is exclusively of a vegetable nature, and consists most commonly of wild yams, potatoes, and other tuberous roots : in the islands of the different West India groups they are particularly destructive to the sugar-cane, of the roots of which they are extremely fond. The planters employ every artifice for destroying them, so that at present they have become comparatively rare in the sugar inland», though on the first settlement of the Antilles and Bahamas they are said to have swarmed in such countless multitudes ike to have constituted the principal article of food for the Indians. They were the largest quadrupeds indigenous in these islands upon their first discovery. The same rule of geogra phical distribution holds good generally in other cases, namely, that where groups of islands are detached at some distance from the mainland of a particular continent, the smaller species of inhabitants are usually found spread over both, whilst the larger and more bulky are confined to the mainland alone, and are never found to be indigenous in the small insulated lan Though the Agoutis use their fore-paws as hands to hold their food whilst they eat, yet their toes arc nevertheless rigid and inflexible, and their claws large, blunt, and nearly straight. They are conse quently deprived of the power of ascending trees ; and as they also do not construct burrows, they wander at large among the woods, sheltering themselves beneath fallen timber, or in the hollow of some decayed tree. Here they produce and nurture their young, bringing forth, according to some accounts, three or four times in the year; according to others, never having more than a single litter in the same season, and even that consisting of not more than two or three indi viduals. It is probable, however, from the amazing numbers of thee() animals found in all the hotter parts of South America, notwithstand ing destruction made among them by email carnivorous animals, as well as by the Indians, and likewise from the close affinity which they bear to the hare and rabbit of our own country, that the Agoutis are tolerably prolific. The young are brought forth with their eyes
climes', as in the case of meet of the R.odentia and Carnivore; but they are covered with hair, or rather small bristles of the same colour as the mother : they soon acquire the use of their limbs, and learn to shift for themselves.
The hind legn of the Agoutis are considerably longer than the fore, and their lime is tolerably rapid for a short distance. lint they seldom trust to speed of foot for their mafety, but seek for shelter and security in the first hollow tree, or under the first rock they meet with. Here they allow themselves to be captured, without any other complaint or resistance than the emineion of a sharp plaintive note. The hoed of the Agouti is largo, the forehead and face convex, the nose swollen and tuberous, the cars round, short, and nearly naked, and the eyes largo and black. The hair is annulated in different degrees with black, shortly after they begin to wear ; No. 2, their intermediate state; and No. 1, when very much worn. The teeth are exclumHely adapted for vegetable food ; they are essentially formed for grinding and bruising; not for cutting and tearing. The stomach and intestines therefore, which are always in harmony with the organs of mastication, are fitted only for the digestion of vegetable substances. The flesh of these animals is white and tender ; it is a very common and favourite article of food in South America, and is dressed like hare or rabbit. The following species are distinctly known: 1. The Common .Agouti (Dasyprocta Aunt°, sometimes called the Long-Nosed or Yellow-Rumped Cavy, from its long nose and the preva lent colour of its lack and shoulders, is the size of a middling hare, being one foot eight inches in length, and about eleven or twelve indica high at the croup. The head resembles that of the rabbit, the nose is thick and swollen, the face arched, the upper lip divided, the ears round and naked, the eyes large, the upper jaw considerably longer than the lower, and time tail a naked flesh-coloured stump. The hairs of the upper and fore parts of the body are annulated with brown, yellow, and black, which give the animal a speckled yellow and green appearance on the neck, head, back, and side» ; on the croup however they are of a uniform golden yellow, much longer than on any other part of the laxly, and directed backwards ; the breast, belly, and inner side of the fore-anus and thighs are light straw colour, and the mous taches and feet black. The general length of the hair en the upper and anterior parts of the body is about an inch, that of the croup is upwards of four inches long, and all, excepting the short coarse fur of the legs and feet, and that on the breast and belly, is of a stiff harsh nature, leirtakieg more of the quality of bristles than of simple hair.