Part 16

[Footnote AE: The hogs, says Kolbe, which have been brought from Java to the Cape of Good Hope, have very short legs, are black, and without bristles; their belly which is very big, hangs almost on the ground. The flesh is very good to eat.]

12. THE WILD BOAR OF CAPE VERD.

There is another hog, or wild boar, at Cape Verd, which, by the number of its teeth, and the enormous size of the tusks in the upper jaw, seems to be of a different race, if not of a different species from every other hog, and approaches nearer the babiroussa. These tusks resemble ivory horns more than teeth; they are half a foot long, and five inches round at the base, and bent nearly like the horns of a bull. This character alone would be insufficient however, to constitute a particular species; but what supports this presumption is, that he differs from every other hog in the length of the aperture of his nostrils, the largeness and form of his jaws, and in the number and form of his grinders; nevertheless we have seen the tusks of a wild boar, taken in the forests of Burgundy, which somewhat approached those of the wild boar of Cape Verd. These tusks were about three inches and a half long, and four inches in circumference at the base; they were turned like the horns of a bull, that is, they had a double curvature, whereas the common tusks have only a single one. They likewise seemed to be as solid as ivory; and it is certain that this wild boar must have had the jaws larger than the common kind. Therefore we may presume that this wild boar of Cape Verd is a simple variety, a particular race in the wild boar species.

SUPPLEMENT.

We have received an engraving of this animal from the celebrated M. Allamand, professor of Natural History at Leyden, and who has also written to M. Daubenton in the following terms:--"I conceive, Sir, that the animal represented in the plate which I sent you, is the same as that which you have treated of under the name of the wild boar of Cape Verd. The one whence it was taken is now living (May 5, 1767) in the menagerie of the Prince of Orange. I frequently visit him, and always receive pleasure from admiring the singular form of his head. It was transmitted by the Governor of the Cape of Good Hope, to whom I have written, requesting him to send me another, but of which I have little hopes, since even at the Cape it was regarded as a monster; yet should I succeed, I will send it to France, that you and M. de Buffon may have an opportunity of examining it. We put a common sow to the one we have, for the purpose of trying whether they would copulate, but the instant she came near him he darted at her, and tore her to pieces." In another letter M. Allamand remarks, that the most material difference between this and the common boar is in their heads, and in this boar's having two very singular protuberances in the form of ears at the side of each eye. The aversion shewn by this animal to the sow, as well as the differences, both external and internal, in the forms of their heads, tends to prove it a distinct species from our hog; yet as it approaches nearer to that than to any other animal, and is found not only near Cape Verd but also in the neighbourhood of the Cape of Good Hope, we shall call it the African boar.

Vosmaër calls it the wild African boar, and very justly distinguishes it from the Guinea hog, the American peccari, and from the Indian babiroussa. This author, in his account, remarks, that, "M. de Buffon, speaking of the wild boar of Cape Verd preserved in the royal cabinet, says that it had cutting teeth; but no such teeth appear in the one I have. The animal came to me in a cage, but being informed he was not mischievous, I opened the door, and he came out, without shewing the least sign of rage; he bustled about in search of food, and greedily devoured whatever was given him. I left him alone for a few moments, and on my return found him busily employed in digging up the floor, in which, although paved with small bricks, closely cemented, he had made a very large hole, and it was not without the assistance of several men that I could make him give over and return to his cage, for he made much resistance, and expressed his resentment by sharp and mournful cries. He appears to have been taken in the woods of Africa when he was very young, for he has grown considerably since he was brought here; he is still alive, and was not much affected last winter, though the frost was very severe. He is far more agile than our hogs. He allows himself to be stroked, and appears fond of rough friction. When made angry he retires backwards, always facing his assailant, and shakes his head very forcibly. After having been confined for any length of time, on being let loose he is very sportive, leaps and pursues the deer, or other animals, and then carries his tail erect, which at other times is pendulous. He has a very strong odour, not disagreeable, yet I do not know any other smell with which it can be compared. He eats all sorts of grain; while bringing him over they fed him with maize, and as much fresh herbage as they could procure; but when he had tasted our barley and wheat he preferred them to other food, excepting roots dug out of the earth. He is so fond of rye-bread that he follows any person who holds him a piece of it. He sinks upon the knees of his fore legs when he eats or drinks, and in which position he often rests. He hears and smells very acutely, but from the smallness and situation of his eyes his sight is very limited; they are placed very high, and near each other, and have two large excrescences underneath them, so that he cannot perceive the objects which are round him.

His figure is very like that of the common hog, but he appears less, from his back being more flat and his legs shorter; compared with them also, he appears very deformed. His muzzle is large, flat, and hard; the nose is moveable, bent towards the base, and terminates obliquely; the nostrils are large, and distant from each other; the upper lip is hard and thick, very prominent round the tusks, and hangs pendulous over the corners of the muzzle. He has no front teeth, but the gums are smooth and hard. The tusks of the upper jaw are crooked, five inches and a half in length, pointed at the ends, and an inch thick at the base; those of the under jaw are much smaller, and from a constant friction against the upper appear to be cut obliquely. He would not permit us to examine his grinders. His eyes are small, the iris of a deep brown, and the cornea white; the upper eyelids have a brown, stiff, close cilia, longest in the middle, but there are no cilia on the under. The ears are pretty large, rather round, covered on the inside with yellow hair, and bent backwards. Besides the protuberances under the eyes there are two more, one on each side of the head. The skin appears to be thick; and there are several tufts of hair dispersed over his body. The forehead is covered with brown and white hairs; from thence is a narrow band of dark grey down to the beginning of the muzzle, where it divides and extends on each side of the head; the bristles are the longest and closest on the neck and anterior part of the back, they are of a brownish grey, and some of them seven or eight inches long; they are not thicker than those of the common hog, and split in the same manner; they have so few on the other part of the back, that it has the appearance of being naked; there are small white bristles on the flanks, breast, belly, and sides of the head and neck. Their feet are divided into two black pointed hoofs; the tail is naked, and hangs perpendicularly. The head is of a blackish colour, and the back and belly of a reddish grey. The width and flatness of the nose, together with the length of the snout, the protuberances under the eyes, and the long tusks, give this animal a dreadful aspect. He is about four Rhenish feet in length."

Notwithstanding all these differences which M. Vosmaër has described, and the aversion which M. Allamand states it to have shewn to the common sow, I still have my doubts whether it be any thing more than a variety of the European hog; for we know that this species varies greatly in Asia, Siam, and China; and these doubts seem to be somewhat supported, by having found about thirty years since, an enormous head of a wild boar that had been killed in our own woods, the tusks of which were nearly as large as those of the Cape boar. To this may be added the information I received from M. Comerson, who says there are wild boars in Madagascar, whose heads are like the common kind from the ears to the eyes, but that under the eyes they have a protuberance, which decreasing gradually to the end of the snout, gives the animal the appearance of having two heads, the one being, as it were partly sunk in the other; and this information also made me conclude that the animal I have mentioned under the appellation of the wild boar of Cape Verd is the same as what is found in Madagascar.

13. THE MEXICAN WOLF.

As the wolf is a native of cold climates, he must have passed northerly into America, since he is met with in both continents. We have spoken of the black and grey wolf of North America. It appears that this species is dispersed as far as New Spain and Mexico; and that in this warm climate it has undergone many varieties, without having changed either its disposition or nature, for the Mexican wolf has the same figure, appetites, and habitudes, as the European or North American wolf, and they all seem to be of the same species. The wolf of Mexico, or rather of New Spain, where he is much oftener found than in Mexico, has five toes on his fore-feet, and four on those behind. The ears are long and straight, and the eyes sparkling, like our wolves; but the head is larger, the neck thicker, and the tail not so bushy. Above the mouth there are some thick bristles, as large, but not so stiff as those of the hedge-hog. The body is covered with greyish hair, marked with some yellow spots. The head is of the same colour as the body, crossed with brown stripes, and the forehead adorned with sallow-coloured spots. The ears are grey, like the head and body. There is a long yellow spot on the neck, a second on the breast, and a third on the belly. The flank is marked with transverse bands from the back to the belly. The tail is grey with a yellow spot in the middle. The legs are striped from top to bottom with grey and brown. This wolf is the most beautiful of the kind, and its fur ought to be valued for its variety of colours.[AF] But in other respects there is not the least indication of its being a different species from the common wolves, which vary in colour from grey to white, and from white to black, without changing the species; and we see, by the testimony of Fernandes, that these wolves of New Spain vary like the European wolf, since even in that country they are not all marked agreeable to the above description, some being found of an uniform colour, and even all white.

[Footnote AF: It might have been suspected, from its variety of colours, that this Mexican wolf is a lynx, which species, as well as the wolf, is found in both continents. But it is sufficient to cast one's eyes on the figure which Recchi has given, to discover that it resembles totally the wolf and not at all the lynx.]

14. THE ALCO.

We have already observed that there were in Peru and Mexico, before the arrival of the Europeans, domestic animals called _alco_, which were of the same size, and nearly of the same disposition, as our small dogs; and which the Spaniards called _Mexican_ or _Peruvian dogs_, from this similitude, and from their having the same attachment and fidelity to their masters. In fact, the species of these animals does not seem to be essentially different from that of the dog; and besides, the term alco may probably be a generic and not a specific term. Recchi has left us the figure of one of these alcos, which is called _ytzcuinte porzotli_ in the Mexican tongue; it was prodigiously fat, and probably degenerated from its domestic state and too great an abundance of food. The head is represented so small, that it has not any proportion to the size of the body; its ears are hanging, which is another mark of domesticity. The muzzle resembles that of a dog; the fore-part of the head is white, and the ears are partly yellow. The neck is so short as to leave no interval between the head and shoulders. The back is curved and covered with yellow hair. The tail is white, short and pendulous, but does not descend lower than the thighs. The belly is large, tense, and marked with black spots; it has six very apparent tits. The legs and feet are white, and the toes, like those of a dog, are armed with long and pointed claws. Fabri, who has given this description, concludes, after a very long dissertation, that this animal is the same as that called alco, and I think his assertion well founded; but we must not look upon it as conclusive, for there is still another race of dogs in America, to which it applies equally as well. "Besides the dogs, says Fernandes, which the Spaniards have transported into America, we met with three other species, which resemble ours both in their natures and manners, and which do not essentially differ in figure. The first and the largest of these American dogs is called _xoloiztcuintli_. This is frequently three cubits long, and what is particularly remarkable, he is entirely without hair, and only covered with a soft, close skin, marked with yellow and blue spots. The second is cloathed with hair, and in size resembles our little Maltese dogs. He is marked with white, black, and yellow. His deformity is singular but not disagreeable. His back is arched, and his neck so exceedingly short, that the head seems to shoot immediately out of the shoulders; in his own country he is called _michuacanens_, from the name of his country. The third, which also resembles our little dogs, is called _techichi_, but his look is dull and savage. The Americans eat his flesh."

From comparing the testimonies of Fabri and Fernandes, it is clear that the second dog the last author calls _michuacanens_, is the same as the _ytzcuinte portzotli_, and that this species of animal existed in America before the arrival of the Europeans; and it must have been the same with the _techichi_. I am therefore persuaded that this word _alco_ was a generic name, which equally applied to both, and perhaps to more races or varieties which still remain unknown to us. But with respect to the first, Fernandes seems to be deceived both with regard to the name and subject. No author has spoken of any naked dogs in New Spain. This race, commonly called _Turkish dogs_, comes from the Indies, and other warm climates of the Old Continent; and it is probable that those which Fernandes saw in America, were transported thither, especially as he expressly mentions that he had seen this species in Spain, before his departure for America. What further proves it to be so is, that this animal had no American name, and Fernandes, in order to give it one, borrowed that of _xoloitzcuintli_, which is the name of the Mexican wolf. Thus of three species or varieties of American dogs, there only remain two, which are indiscriminately called by the name of _alco_; for independently of the fat alco, which served as a lap dog for the Peruvian ladies, there was a lean and melancholy alco, used for the purpose of hunting, and it is not impossible that these animals, though very different to all appearance from that of our dogs, nevertheless spring from the same stock. The Lapland, Siberian, and Iceland dogs, may, like the wolves and foxes, have passed from one continent to the other, and afterwards degenerated by the influence of climate and a domestic state. The first alco, with a short neck, approaches the Iceland dog; and the techichi of New Spain, is probably the same animal as the koupara, or crab-dog of Guiana, which resembles the fox in its shape and the jackal in its hair. He is denominated the crab-dog, because he principally feeds upon crabs and other crustaceous animals. I have only seen a skin of one of these Guiana animals, and I am unable to decide whether it be a particular species, or whether it be related to those of the dog, fox, or jackal.

15. THE TAYRA; OR GALERA.

This animal, of which Mr. Brown has given a figure and description, is about the size of a small rabbit, and greatly resembles the weasel or marten. He burrows in the earth, and his fore-feet are very strong, but considerably shorter than those behind. His muzzle is long, a little pointed, and adorned with whiskers; the under jaw is much shorter than the upper. He has six incisive and two canine teeth in each jaw, without reckoning the grinders. His tongue is rough, like that of a cat. His head is oblong, as are also the eyes, which are at an equal distance from the ears and the extremity of the muzzle. His ears are flat, and resemble those of a man. His feet are strong and made for digging; the metatarsus is elongated, and he has five toes on each foot. His tail is long and decreases gradually to a point. His body is oblong, and greatly resembles that of a large rat. He is covered with brown hairs, some of which are pretty long, and others much shorter. This animal appears to be a small species of marten or pole-cat. Linnæus, with some probability, supposed, that the black weasel of Brasil, might be the galera of Mr. Brown, and in fact, the two descriptions sufficiently agree to give us reason to presume it. This black weasel of Brasil is also found in Guiana, where it is called _tayra_, and it is supposed that the word galera is a corruption derived from tayra, the true name of this animal.

16. THE PHILANDER OF SURINAM.

This animal belongs to the same climate, and is of a similar species to the other oppossums. Sibillas Merian, is the first who gave a figure and description of it. Seba considered that of Merian's to be the female, and gave another figure for that of the male, with a kind of description; this animal, he says, has very sparkling eyes, surrounded with a circle of brown hair. The body is covered with a soft hair, or rather a kind of wool of a reddish yellow colour, which is mostly red on the back, and of a yellowish white on the snout, forehead, belly, and feet: the ears are naked and pretty hard. There are long hairs in form of whiskers on the upper jaw and above the eyes; its teeth are pointed and very sharp. Upon the tail of the male, which is naked, and of a pale red, there are dark red spots, which are not seen on the tail of the female. The feet resemble the hands of the ape; the fore-feet having four fingers and a thumb with short and obtuse nails, while only the thumb, or great toe, of the hind-feet is flat and obtuse, the rest being armed with small sharp claws. The young of these animals grunt somewhat like pigs. The teats of the female resemble those of the murine opossum. Seba justly observes, that in the figure given by Marian, the feet and toes are badly represented. The females produce five or six at a time. The tail is very long and prehensile, like that of the sapajous. The young ones get on the back of their mother, and fix themselves securely by twisting their tail round her's. In this situation, which is familiar to them, they carry them with much swiftness and safety.

17. THE AKOUCHI.

The Akouchi is common in Guiana, and other parts of South America. It differs from the agouti by having a tail, which the latter has not. The akouchi is generally smaller than the agouti, and its hair is not red, but of an olive colour. These are the only differences we are acquainted with between these two animals, which, however, seem sufficient to constitute two distinct and separate species.

SUPPLEMENT.

Besides our former remark that the akouchi was a different species from the agouti from having a tail, the difference in size may also be added, in support of this opinion, as the former does not exceed the size of a young rabbit. The akouchi confines itself solely to large forests; he feeds upon fruits, and has the same natural habits as the agouti. He is called by the name of agouti in the islands of Grenada and St. Lucia. His flesh is very white, of a good flavour, and he is reckoned among the choicest game of South America; when pursued they will suffer the dogs to take them rather than attempt their escape by taking to the water. According to M. de la Borde they have but one or two young at a time, but this I doubt. They are very easily tamed, and sometimes, though very seldom, make a cry somewhat like a Guinea pig.

I have been assured by Messrs. Aublet and Oliver, that in Cayenne the hare is called agouti, and the rabbit akouchi, and that the former is the best food; and they farther add, that the flesh of the armadillos, except the nine-banded, is still better; that the paca is esteemed the best game next to the armadillo, and after them are ranked the agouti and akouchi; and these gentlemen also assert, that the inhabitants of this country eat the red cougar, and that its flesh nearly resembles veal.

18. THE TUCAN.

Fernandes gives the name of _Tucan_ to an animal of New Spain, whose natural habits approach nearer to that of the mole than to any other animal. It appears to me to be the same animal as that described by Seba, by the name of the American red mole; at least the descriptions given by these two authors agree sufficiently to admit such a presumption. The tucan is perhaps a little larger than our mole; like that it is flat and fleshy, and has such short legs, that its belly touches the ground. The tail is short, its ears small and round; and its eyes so very small, that they are, in a manner of speaking, useless. But it differs from the mole in the colour of its hair, which is of a reddish yellow; and by the number of toes, having only three to the fore-feet, and four to those behind, whereas the mole has five toes on each foot. It seems still farther to differ from the mole by its flesh being good to eat; and in not having the same instinct of recovering its retreat when it is once come out, but each time is obliged to burrow a fresh hole: so that in certain soils, which agree with these animals, the holes made by them are so very numerous, and so near each other, that great precaution is necessary to walk in safety.

19. THE FIELD-MOUSE OF BRASIL.

We call this animal by this name because we are ignorant of the real one it bears in its native land, and because it resembles more the field-mouse than any other animal. It is, however, considerably larger, being about five inches long, from the extremity of the muzzle to the insertion of the tail, which is only two inches, and, consequently, much shorter in proportion than that of the common field-mouse. Its muzzle is pointed, and its teeth very sharp. There are three very broad black stripes on a ground of brown hair, which extend longitudinally from the head to the tail, below which the scrotum appears hanging between the hind legs. This animal, says Marcgrave, plays with the cats, who never appear inclined to eat them; and this is another thing which it has in common with the European field-mice, which the cats will kill, but they never eat them.

20. THE APEREA.