ins, and in the forests they are again
different. Everywhere they leave their original dwelling-places, which
they exchange for an abode with man. As the mouse and the rat attack
the gathered fruits of the earth, the agouti preys on those yet
standing in the field. These animals are seldom found in the depths of
the forest, but more frequently on its edge near the chacras of the
Indians. Shortly before sunset they leave the thickets, and stealthily
repair to the maize, yucca, and anana fields, where they scratch up the
root and eat the grain and fruit; but the slightest noise drives them
back to their holes. In the deeper recesses of the forest resounds the
monotonous, drawling cry of the sloth. Here we have a symbol of life
under the utmost degree of listlessness, and of the greatest
insensibility in a state of languid repose. This emblem of misery fixes
itself on an almost leafless bough, and there remains defenceless; a
ready prey to any assailant. Better defended is the scale-covered
armadillo, with his coat of mail. Towards evening he burrows deep holes
in the earth, and searches for the larvae of insects, or he ventures out
of the forest, and visits the yucca fields, where he digs up the
well-flavored roots. The ant-eater rakes up with his long curved claws
the crowded resorts of ants, stretches out his long, spiral, and
adhesive tongue, into the midst of the moving swarm, and draws it back
covered with a multitude of crawling insects.

In the soft marshy grounds, or in the damp shady recesses of the
forests, the heavy tapir reposes during the heat of the day; but when
the fresh coolness of evening sets in, he roves through the forest,
tears the tender twigs from the bushes, or seeks food in the
grass-covered Pajonales. Sometimes a multitude of tapirs sally from the
forests into the cultivated fields, to the great alarm of the Indians. A
broad furrow marks the tract along which they have passed, and the
plants they encounter in their progress are trampled down or devoured.
Such a visit is particularly fatal to the coca fields; for the tapirs
are extremely fond of the leaves of the low-growing coca plant, and they
often, in one night, destroy a coca field which has cost a poor Indian
the hard labor of a year.

Flocks of the umbilical hog, or peccary, traverse the level Montanas. If
one of them is attacked by the hunter, a whole troop falls furiously on
him, and it is only by promptly climbing up a tree that he can