, and the
species are of small size. Nearly the only game a hunter can depend upon
for food, besides toucans and macaws, is peccari. One species of tapir,
to represent the elephants and rhinoceroses of the Old World; three
small species of deer, taking the places of deer, antelopes, buffaloes,
sheep, and goats of the other continent; three species of large Felidae;
one peccari, and a wild dog, with opossums, ant-eaters, armadilloes,
sloths, squirrels (the only rodents which approach ours),[176]
capybaras, pacas, agoutis, and monkeys, comprise all the quadrupeds of
equatorial America. The last two are the most numerous. Marsupial rats
take the place of the insectivorous mammals. Of ant-eaters, there are at
least four distinct species; but they are scattered sparingly, and are
seldom found on the low flooded lands. Four or five species of
armadillo inhabit the valley. These little nocturnal burrowing edentates
are the puny representatives of the gigantic Glyptodon of Pleistocene
times, and the sloths are the dwindling shadows of the lordly
Megatherium. There are two species of three-toed sloths--one inhabiting
the swampy lowlands, the other confined to the terra-firma land. They
lead a lonely life, never in groups, harmless and frugal as a hermit.
They have four stomachs, but not the long intestines of ruminating
animals. They feed chiefly on the leaves of the trumpet-tree
(_Cecropia_), resembling our horse-chestnut. The natives, both Indian
and Brazilian, hold the common opinion that the sloth is the type of
laziness. The capybara or ronsoco, the largest of living rodents, is
quite common on the river side. It is gregarious and amphibious, and
resembles a mammoth guinea-pig. Pacas and agoutis are most abundant in
the lowlands, and are nocturnal. These semi-hoofed rodents, like the
Toxodon of old, approach the Pachyderms. The tapir, or gran-bestia, as
it is called, is a characteristic quadruped of South America. It is a
clumsy-looking animal, with a tough hide of an iron-gray color, covered
with a coat of short coarse hair. Its flesh is dry, but very palatable.
It has a less powerful proboscis than the Malay species. M. Roulin
distinguishes another species from the mountains, which more nearly
resembles the Asiatic. The tapir, like the condor, for an unknown
reason, is not found north of 8 deg. N., though it wanders as far south as
40 deg.. We met but one species of peccari, the white-lipped (_D.
labiatus_). It is much lar