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Updated: June 22, 2025
It is only here that fish no bigger than trout kill swimmers, and bats the size of the ordinary "flittermice" of the northern hemisphere drain the life-blood of big beasts and of man himself. There was not much large mammalian life in the neighborhood. Kermit hunted industriously and brought in an occasional armadillo, coati, or agouti for the naturalists.
It differs, however, from that genus in many essential respects; for instance, it has only three toes behind. It is also nearly twice the size, weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds. The Agouti is a true friend of the desert; it is a common feature of the landscape to see two or three hopping quickly one after the other in a straight line across these wild plains.
Another enigma which led Schmerling astray in some of his geological speculations was the supposed presence of the agouti, a South American rodent, "proper to the torrid zone."
It is an agouti, a mother, her little ones are near. At sight of the stranger they run to her, but quickly re-assured, quietly finish their morning repast.
On the branches that overhang the silent pool we may see the "water-boa," of huge dimensions, watching for his prey the peccary, the capivara, the paca, or the agouti; and in the dry forest we may meet with his congener the "stag-swallower," twined around a tree, and waiting for the roebuck or the little red-deer of the woods.
There are many species of agouti throughout tropical America and the West India Islands, and the range of the genus extends as far south as the plains of Patagonia. The Pacas form another genus belonging to the family of the cavies that may be also grouped with the hares and rabbits. They burrow like the common rabbit, and their food consists of nuts, fruits, and roots.
It appears also, from the number shot by Captain Wood in one day at Port Desire, that they must have been considerably more abundant there formerly than at present. Where the Bizcacha lives and makes its burrows, the Agouti uses them; but where, as at Bahia Blanca, the Bizcacha is not found, the Agouti burrows for itself.
It differs, however, from that genus in many essential respects; for instance, it has only three toes behind. It is also nearly twice the size, weighing from twenty to twenty-five pounds. The Agouti is a true friend of the desert; it is a common feature of the landscape to see two or three hopping quickly one after the other in a straight line across these wild plains.
The paca and agouti belong to the peculiar family of the rodent order confined to South America, and which connects the Rodentia to the Pachydermata the order to which the elephant, horse, and hog belong. The fossil toxodon resembled the Rodentia in its dentition, and, at the same time, was nearly related to the elephant.
And he then, with, great pride and satisfaction, produced his booty, which I recognized, from the description of travellers, to be the agouti, common in these regions, a swift animal, which burrows in the earth, and lives on fruits and nuts; its flesh, something like that of the rabbit, has an unpleasant flavour to Europeans.
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