CAPYBARA(Hydrochoerus capybara), the largest of existing Rodents, measuring about 4 feet in length and 3 in girth, and weighing usually over 100 lb. It is also known as the water-hog from the resemblance which it bears when walking to a pig, although when sitting on its haunches it reassumes the characteristic appearance of the Cavy family, to which it belongs. In the coarseness and scantiness of its fur, in the numerous enamel plates, embedded in cement, which stretch entirely across its molar teeth, like those of the elephant, and in the habit, when swimming, of carrying its young on its back like the hippopotamus, the capybara has been supposed to form a connecting link between the rodents and pachyderms, and in the Linnaean system of classification it was placed among the Suid(β. Its scanty fur is of a dark brown colour, its tail forms a small horny protuberance, and its feet are webbed, though not to the extremities of the toes. This pachydermatous rodent, as it has been called, is confined to South America, where it extends from Guiana southward to the Rio de la Plata, and westward to the eastern slopes of the Andes. It is a nocturnal animal, feeding on fruits and herbs, inhabiting the banks of rivers and fresh water lakes, and occasionally frequenting, according to Darwin, the mouths of such rivers as the Rio Plata where the water is entirely salt. Capybaras congregate in considerable numbers, browsing by night among aquatic plants, and in districts where they are not Hable to the attacks of the jaguar, are sufficiently tame to allow themselves to be approached within a few feet; while, under domestication, they are said to be capable of considerable attachment. When disturbed they utter a low abrupt grunt, “resembling,” says Darwin, “the first hoarse bark ...