us _Sus_, and constitute for them a
genus of their own. It is hardly necessary to say that this is a very
useless proceeding--since the peccaries are neither more nor less than
true wild hogs, the indigenous representatives of the _suidae_, on the
American continent. Their classification into a separate genus has been
productive of no good purpose, but the very contrary: since it has added
to the number of zoological names, thereby rendering still more
difficult the study of that interesting science. For such an endless
vocabulary, we are chiefly indebted to the speculations of anatomic
naturalists, who, lacking opportunities of actual observation, endeavour
to make up for it by guesses and conjectures, founded upon some little
tubercle upon a tooth! Notwithstanding their learned treatises, it
often proves--and very often too--that these tubercles tell most
abominable stories; in plainer terms, that the animals "lie in their
teeth."

The peccary--which the old writers were content to regard as a wild pig,
and very properly placed under the genus _sus_--is now termed
_dicotyles_. Two species only are yet known to naturalists--the
"white-lipped" and "collared" (_dicotyles labritus_ and _dicotyles
collaris_); and although they are rarely found frequenting the same
district of country, either one or the other kind can be encountered in
all the wilder parts of America--from California on the north, to the
latitude of the La Plata on the south. Both are nearly of one form and
colour--a sort of speckled greyish-brown; the collared species being so
named from a whitish list running up in front of its shoulders, and
forming the semblance of a collar; while the white-lipped derives its
specific title from having lips of a greyish-white colour. In size,
however, there is a great difference between the two: the white-lipped
peccary weighing 100 pounds, or nearly twice the weight of the collared
species. The former, too, is proportionably stouter in build, and
altogether a stronger and fiercer animal; for although fierceness is not
a characteristic of their nature, like other animals of the hog family,
when, roused, they exhibit a ferocity and fearlessness equalling that of
the true _carnivora_.

Both kinds of peccary are preyed upon by the jaguar; but this tyrant of
the wilds approaches them with more caution and far less confidence,
than when he makes his onslaught on the helpless chiguires; and not
unfrequently in confl