They produce once a year, and generally have five or six young. Their time of gestation cannot be long, as they are not in season till the summer, and their young are full grown by October, when they seek for shelter; they construct new huts every year, and are never known to revisit their former habitations. Their cry is a kind of groan, which the huntsmen imitate in order to allure them. So strong are their fore-teeth, and so calculated for gnawing, that if shut up in a box, they soon make a hole large enough to escape through, a faculty which they possess in common with the beaver. They do not swim so fast, or so long as the beaver, and are often seen upon the ground; they run very indifferently, and in their walk they waddle like a goose. Their skin retains the smell of musk, which renders it of little value to the furriers, but their under hair, or down, is used in the manufacture of hats. These animals are not very wild, and when taken young are easily tamed; and are then tolerably handsome, for their tail, which is afterwards long and disagreeable, is very short. They play with all the innocence and sprightliness of young cats, and they might be reared with ease but for their disagreeable smell. The Canadian and Muscovy musk-rats, are the only animals belonging to the northern regions which yield any perfume, for the odour of the _castoreum_ (obtained from the badger) is highly disagreeable; and it is only in warm climates that we meet with the animals which furnish the real musk, the civet, and other delicate perfumes. The musk-rat of Muscovy might, perhaps, present singularities analogous to those of the Canadian, and not less remarkable, but it does not appear that any naturalist has yet had an opportunity to dissect, or examine it alive. Of its exterior form alone we can speak, as that sent from Lapland, for the king's cabinet, was in a dry state, and therefore I can only add my regret that so little is known about it. THE PECCARI, OR MEXICAN HOG. Among the animals of the New World, few species are more numerous, or more remarkable, than that of the Mexican Hog.[V] (_fig. 116._) At the first glance he resembles our wild boar, or rather the hog of Siam, which, as we have already observed, is nothing more than a variety of the wild boar; and for which reason this has been called the American wild boar, or American hog. He is, however, of a distinct species, and refuses to engender either with our wild or domestic kinds; a circumstance of which I was convinced, by having reared one of these animals in company with several sows. [Footnote V: This animal has a variety of names; besides the above, some call him _Tajassou_, _Tajacou_, _Paquira_, _Saino_, &c.]