Part 8

We mention ibis animal merely as a supplement to the description we have given of the wolf, for there can be little doubt of his belonging to the same species. We have already said, that in the northern parts of Europe there were some wolves black, and others white, and that the black wolves were generally the largest; but the one we are now about to describe came from Canada, and was smaller than the common wolf; but we have had repeated occasions to remark, that the animals of the northern parts of America are less in size than those belonging to the north of Europe, and this difference in size was the chief, if not the only variation in him; besides, he had been taken very young, and ever after kept in a state of captivity, which also might have prevented the completion of his growth. Our common wolf is less in Canada than in Europe; and in that country black wolves and foxes are not uncommon. We saw this animal alive, and to us it appeared perfectly to resemble the common wolf both in figure and disposition.

_Engraved for Barr's Buffon._

THE CANADIAN MUSK-RAT, AND THE MUSCOVY MUSK-RAT.

Though these two animals have been denominated musk-rats, and have a few common characteristics, yet they ought not to be confounded; they must also be distinguished from the Pilori, or Musk-rat, of the Antilles; all three forming different species, and belonging to different climates; the first, also called Ondatra, is found in Canada; the second, or Desman, in Lapland and Muscovy; and the Pilori, in Martinico and other of the Antille islands.

The Musk-rat of Canada (_fig. 115._) differs from that of Muscovy in having all its toes separate, eyes very conspicuous, and a short nose; whereas the latter (_fig. 114._) has the toes of the hind feet united by a membrane, exceedingly small eyes, and a long nose like the shrew-mouse. The tail of both is flat, in which, as well as in many other characteristics, they differ from the pilori of the Antilles. The tail of the pilori is short, and, like that of other rats, cylindrical; the other two have long tails, and the head of the first is like that of a water-rat, and the head of the second resembles a shrew-mouse.

In the memoirs of the Academy of Sciences, for 1725, we meet with a very accurate description of the Canadian musk-rat. M. Sarrasin, a correspondent of the Academy, dissected a number of them at Quebec, and made some striking and singular remarks; by comparing his description with our own, we have not the least doubt but the animal which he calls the musk-rat of Canada, is the same with that now before us.

This animal is of the size of a small rabbit, and of the figure of a rat. Its head is short, and similar to that of the water-rat; its hair is soft and glossy, with a thick down underneath, like that of the beaver; its tail is long and covered with little scales, like that of the other rats, though of a different form, for instead of being cylindrical it is flat from the middle to the tip, and rather round at the insertion. The toes are not united by membranes, but furnished with a long thick hair, which enables the animal to swim with ease. Its ears are very short, but not naked, as in the common rat, but covered with hair, both outwardly and inwardly; its eyes are large; it has two incisive teeth, about an inch long, in the under jaw, and two shorter ones in the upper; these four teeth are very strong, and by them the animal is enabled to gnaw through wood.

The striking singularities remarked by M. Sarrasin, in this animal are, first, the muscular force and great expansibility in the skin, which enables the animal to contract and compress its body into a smaller size. Secondly, the suppleness of the false ribs, which admits a contraction of body so considerable that the musk-rat can obtain an easy passage through holes where smaller animals cannot find admission. Thirdly, the manner in which the female voids her urine, the urethra not terminating, as in other animals, under the clitoris, but at a hairy eminence above the os pubis, and in which there is an orifice, that serves the urine to escape. This strange organization is found in only a few species of animals, as rats and apes have three apertures; and these two are perhaps the only animals who have a passage for the urine distinct from the organs of generation: to the females alone, however, does this singularity belong, for the conformation of the males is the same with that of other quadrupeds. M. Sarrasin observes, fourthly, that the testicles which, as in other rats, are situated on each side of the anus, become exceedingly large, considering the size of the animal, during the rutting season; but that over, they not only change in size, consistency, and colour, but even in situation, and with the seminal vessels, and all the organs of generation become almost invisible. And, lastly, that the vessels which contain the musk, or perfume, of this animal, under the form of a milky humor, and which adjoin the parts of generation, undergo the same changes; that during the rutting season they enlarge in a great degree, and then the perfume is exceedingly strong, and may be sensibly distinguished at a considerable distance, but at its expiration they become wrinkled, decay, and at length entirely disappear. The change in the vessels, which contain the perfume, is effected more quickly, and more completely, than that of the parts of generation. These vessels are common to both sexes, and at the above periods contain a considerable quantity of milky humor; and the secretion is formed, and the humor voided, nearly in the same place as the urine of other quadrupeds. These singularities were worthy the attention of so able an anatomist as M. Sarrasin. We have already mentioned similar alterations in the parts of generation in the water-rat, the campagnol, and the mole; but this is not the place for us to enlarge on the general consequences which might be drawn from these singular facts, nor even on the immediate references they may have to our theory of generation. These we shall soon have occasion to present with more advantage, by uniting them with other facts to which they relate.

As the Canadian musk-rat belongs to the same country as the beaver, is fond of water, and has nearly the same figure, colour, and hair, they have been often compared to each other; it is even affirmed, that, at the first glance, a full grown musk-rat may be mistaken for a beaver of a month old. But in the form of their tails there is a considerable difference; that of the beaver being oval and flat horizontally; whereas that of the musk-rat is of a considerable length, and flat, or compressed vertically. In disposition and instinct, however, these animals have a strong resemblance. The musk-rats, as well as the beavers, live in societies during the winter. They form little dwellings about two feet and a half in diameter and sometimes larger, in which is often an association of several families. These habitations are not for the purpose of resorting to, in order to sleep like the marmots, for five or six months, but to obtain a shelter from the inclemency of the weather; they are of a round form, and covered with a dome about a foot thick; the materials for making which are herbs and rushes interwoven together, and cemented with clay, which they prepare with their feet; these huts are impenetrable by the rain, and secured from the effects of inundations by being elevated on the inside, and tho' covered with snow several feet thick in the winter these animals do not seem to be incommoded by this circumstance. They do not provide a stock of provisions for that season, but dig a sort of passages round their dwellings, for the purpose of procuring roots and water. As winter is not their season of love, they reap but little advantage from associating. All this period they remain totally deprived of light, and therefore no sooner has the mild breath of spring begun to dissolve the snow, and uncover the tops of their little mansions, than the huntsmen open their dome suddenly, dazzle them with the light, and kill or seize all those who have not obtained shelter in their subterraneous passages; but as their skins are valuable, and their flesh not unpalatable, thither they are also pursued for slaughter. Such as escape quit their habitations about the same time. They wander about during the summer but always in pairs, for then is the time of their amours; then it is that all their vessels expand, and feeding largely upon the fresh roots and vegetables which the season affords, they acquire a strong smell of musk; a scent which, though agreeable to Europeans, is so disgustful to the savages, that they distinguish one of their rivers, from being frequented by a number of them, the Stinking River, and the animal itself the Stinkard.

They produce once a year, and generally have five or six young. Their time of gestation cannot be long, as they are not in season till the summer, and their young are full grown by October, when they seek for shelter; they construct new huts every year, and are never known to revisit their former habitations. Their cry is a kind of groan, which the huntsmen imitate in order to allure them. So strong are their fore-teeth, and so calculated for gnawing, that if shut up in a box, they soon make a hole large enough to escape through, a faculty which they possess in common with the beaver. They do not swim so fast, or so long as the beaver, and are often seen upon the ground; they run very indifferently, and in their walk they waddle like a goose. Their skin retains the smell of musk, which renders it of little value to the furriers, but their under hair, or down, is used in the manufacture of hats. These animals are not very wild, and when taken young are easily tamed; and are then tolerably handsome, for their tail, which is afterwards long and disagreeable, is very short. They play with all the innocence and sprightliness of young cats, and they might be reared with ease but for their disagreeable smell.

The Canadian and Muscovy musk-rats, are the only animals belonging to the northern regions which yield any perfume, for the odour of the _castoreum_ (obtained from the badger) is highly disagreeable; and it is only in warm climates that we meet with the animals which furnish the real musk, the civet, and other delicate perfumes.

The musk-rat of Muscovy might, perhaps, present singularities analogous to those of the Canadian, and not less remarkable, but it does not appear that any naturalist has yet had an opportunity to dissect, or examine it alive. Of its exterior form alone we can speak, as that sent from Lapland, for the king's cabinet, was in a dry state, and therefore I can only add my regret that so little is known about it.

THE PECCARI, OR MEXICAN HOG.

Among the animals of the New World, few species are more numerous, or more remarkable, than that of the Mexican Hog.[V] (_fig. 116._) At the first glance he resembles our wild boar, or rather the hog of Siam, which, as we have already observed, is nothing more than a variety of the wild boar; and for which reason this has been called the American wild boar, or American hog. He is, however, of a distinct species, and refuses to engender either with our wild or domestic kinds; a circumstance of which I was convinced, by having reared one of these animals in company with several sows.

[Footnote V: This animal has a variety of names; besides the above, some call him _Tajassou_, _Tajacou_, _Paquira_, _Saino_, &c.]

He differs also from the hog in a number of characteristics, both external and internal. He is less corpulent, and his legs are shorter; in the stomach and intestines, there is a difference of conformation. He has no tail, and his bristles are much stronger than those of the wild boar; and, lastly, he has on his back, near the crupper, an opening from which there is discharged an ichorous humor of a very disagreeable smell. This is the only animal which has an opening in this part of the body. In the civets, the badger, and the genet, the reservoir for their perfume is situated beneath the parts of generation; and in the musk-animal, and the musk-rat of Canada, we find it under the belly. The moisture which exudes from this aperture in the back of the Mexican hog, is secreted by large glands, which M. Daubenton has described with much attention, as well as the other singularities of this animal; Dr. Tyson also in the Philosophical Transactions, No. 153, has given a good description of it. Without minutely detailing the observations of these two able anatomists, I shall barely remark, that the latter was mistaken in asserting that this animal has three stomachs, or, as Mr. Ray says, a gizzard and two stomachs. M. Daubenton plainly shews, that it is only one stomach divided by two similar pouches, which give it the appearance of three; that only one of these pouches has a pyrolus, or orifice below, for the discharge of its contents; that, consequently, we ought to consider the two others merely as appendages to, or rather portions of, the same stomach.

The Mexican hog might be rendered a domestic animal like the common kind; he has nearly the same habits and natural inclinations; feeds upon the same aliments, and his flesh, though more dry and lean, is not unpalatable, and may be improved by castration. When killed, not only the parts of generation, if the flesh is intended to be eaten, (as is also done with the wild boar) must be taken instantly away, but also the glands at the opening in the back, and which are common to both male and female, must likewise be removed, for if this operation be deferred for only half an hour, the flesh becomes utterly unfit to be eaten.

These animals are extremely numerous in all the warm climates of South America. They go in herds of two or three hundred together, and unite, like hogs, in the defence of each other. They are particularly fierce when their young are attempted to be taken from them. They surround their plunderers, attack them without fear, and frequently make their lives pay the forfeit of their rashness. In their native country they prefer the mountainous parts to the low and level grounds; neither do they seek marshes nor mud, like our hogs, but remain in the forests, where they subsist upon wild fruits, roots, and vegetables; they are an unceasing enemy to all the serpent kinds, with which the uncultivated forests of the New Continent abound: as soon as they perceive a serpent or viper, they seize it with their fore hoofs, skin it in an instant, and devour the flesh.

These animals are very prolific; the young ones follow the dam, and do not separate from her till they are full grown. If taken young they are very easily tamed, and soon lose all their natural ferocity, but they never shew any signs of docility, but continue stupid, without attachment, or even seeming to know the hand that feeds them. They do no mischief, and may be permitted to run tame, without apprehending any dangerous consequence. They seldom stray far from home, but return of themselves to the sty: they never quarrel among each other, except when they are fed in the same trough. At such times they have an angry grunt, much stronger and harsher than that of a common hog; but they seldom scream, only when suddenly surprised, or frightened, when they have a shrill manner of blowing like the wild boar. When enraged they draw their breath with great force, and point their bristles upward which more resemble the sharp armour of the hedge-hog than the bristles of the wild boar.

The species of the Mexican hog is preserved without alteration, and altogether unmixed with that of the European hog, which has been transported to, and become wild in, the forests of America. These animals meet in the woods, and even herd together, and yet never produce an intermediate breed. It is the same with the Guinea hog, which has greatly multiplied in America, after being brought thither from Africa.

However approximate the species of the European hog, the Guinea-hog, and the peccari, may appear, it is, nevertheless, evident, that they are each distinct, and separate from the others since they inhabit the same climate without intermixture. Of the three, the strongest, most robust, and most formidable, is our wild boar. The peccari, though equally fierce, is yet less active, and inferior as to the engines of defence, his tusks being much shorter. This animal dreads the cold, and cannot subsist, without shelter, even in our temperate regions; nor can our wild boar exist in countries which are very cold; therefore it is impossible that either of them could have found a passage from the one continent to the other, over any northern country; and therefore the Mexican hog cannot be considered as an European hog degenerated, or changed, by the climate of America, but as an animal peculiar to the southern regions of that continent.

Ray and other naturalists, have maintained, that the humor discharged from the back of the Mexican hog is a kind of musk, an agreeable perfume, even as it exudes from the body of the animal; that it is perceived at a considerable distance, and perfumes every place he inhabits, and through which he passes. I have, I must own, a thousand times experienced very contrary effects; for so disagreeable is the smell of this moisture, on being separated from the body of the animal, that I could not collect it without being exceedingly incommoded. It becomes less foetid by being dried in the air, but never acquires the agreeable smell of musk, or of civet; and naturalists would have expressed themselves with more propriety, if they had compared it to that of _castoreum_.

SUPPLEMENT.

M. de la Borde says, there are two kinds of the Peccari, or Mexican hog, in Cayenne, which never intermix; the largest of which is black, excepting two white spots upon its jaws, and that the hair of the small one is rather red; but I apprehend the differences are occasioned by age, or some accidental circumstance. He adds, that those of the large size do not associate with men; but that they live in the woods, upon seeds, roots, and fruits; that they dig in the damp soils for worms, and that they go in flocks of two or three hundred. It is no difficult matter to shoot them, as, instead of flying, they collect together, and will stand several discharges; nay, they will even attack the dogs, and sometimes men. He mentions an instance where he was out with a party that were surrounded by a flock of these hogs, who were not to be intimidated by a continual firing, and could not be dispersed until several of them were killed. When taken young, they are soon rendered familiar, but they will not intermix with the domestic hogs. When living in their natural state of freedom, they often reside in the marshes, and will swim across rivers. Their flesh, though palatable, is not so good as the common hog; it has a strong resemblance to that of the hare, and is without lard or grease.

M. de la Borde speaks of another species of hog found in Guiana, which he calls _patira_, in these terms: "The patira is about the size of the small Mexican hog, and the only difference is the former having a white stripe along the back; they live in large forests, and, in general, herd in families. They will defend themselves against dogs, when hunted by them: when likely to be overpowered, they seek shelter in hollow trees, or in holes of the earth, that have been made by armadilloes, which they entered backwards. To get them out, the hunters employ every means to irritate them, (having first inclosed a space round the hole) for when angry they will quit their retreat, and the men, standing prepared, destroy them with pitchforks and sabres. If a hunter observes a single one in a hole, and does not then wish to take it, he closes up the entrance, and is sure to have him the next day. Their flesh is superior to that of other hogs. When caught young they are easily rendered domestic, but even then they preserve their natural inveteracy against dogs, whom they attack on all occasions. They constantly live in the marshes, unless when entirely covered with water. The females produce two at a time, and they breed at all seasons of the year. Their hair is soft, like that of the Mexican hog. When tamed they follow their masters, and allow themselves to be handled by those they know, but strangers they always threaten by shewing their teeth."

THE ROUSETTE, OR TERNAT BAT, THE ROUGETTE, OR LITTLE TERNAT, AND THE VAMPYRE.

The Roussette[W] and the Rougette[X] seem to form two distinct species, but they so nearly resemble each other that they ought not to be presented apart, as they differ only in the size of the body and colour of the hair. The Great Ternat, (_fig. 117._) whose hair is of a reddish brown, is nine inches in length, from the tip of the nose to the insertion of the tail, and in breadth three feet, when the membranes, which serve it for wings, are fully extended. The Rougette, whose hair is of a reddish ash colour, is hardly more than five inches and a half in length, and two feet in breadth, when the wings are extended; and its neck is half encircled with a stripe of lively red, intermixed with orange, of which we perceive no vestige on the neck of the roussette. They both belong to nearly the same hot climates of the old continent, are met with in Madagascar, in the island of Bourbon, in Ternat, the Philippines, and other islands of the Indian Archipelago, where they seem to be more common than on the neighbouring continents.

[Footnote W: Also called the Flying Dog, and the Great Bat of Madagascar.]

[Footnote X: Or the Red-necked Flying Dog.]

In the hot countries of the New World, there is another flying quadruped, of which we know not the American name, but shall call it Vampyre, because it sucks the blood of men, and other animals while asleep, without causing sufficient pain to awaken them. This American animal is of a different species from the bats just mentioned, both of which are to be found solely in Africa, and in the southern parts of Asia.

_Engraved for Barr's Buffon._