The distinctive markings are, on the former species a greyish-white
patch along the jaws, and on the other a yellowish-white belt, embracing
the neck and shoulders, as a collar does a horse. These markings have
given to each its specific name. They are farther distinguished, by the
forehead of the white-lipped peccary being more hollowed or concave than
that of its congener.
In most other respects these creatures are alike. Both feed upon roots,
fruits, frogs, toads, lizards, and snakes. Both make their lair in
hollow logs, or in caves among the rocks, and both are gregarious in
their habits. In this last habit, however, they exhibit some
difference. The white-lipped species associate in troops to the number
of hundreds, and even as many as a thousand have been seen together;
whereas the others do not live in such large droves, but are oftener met
with in pairs. Yet this difference of habit may arise from the fact
that in the places where both have been observed, the latter have not
been so plentiful as the white-lipped species. As many as a hundred of
the collared peccary have been observed in one "gang," and no doubt had
there been more of them in the neighbourhood, the flock would have been
still larger.
The white-lipped species does not extend to the northern half of the
American Continent. Its _habitat_ is in the great tropical forests of
Guyana and Brazil, and it is found much farther south, being common in
Paraguay. It is there known as the "vaquira," whence our word
"peccary." The other species is also found in South America, and is
distinguished as the "vaquira de collar" (collared peccary). Of course,
they both have trivial Indian names, differing in different parts of the
country. The former is called in Paraguay "Tagnicati," while the latter
is the "Taytetou."
Neither species is so numerous as they were informer times. They have
been thinned off by hunting--not for the value either of their flesh or
their skins, not for the mere sport either, but on account of their
destructive habits. In the neighbourhood of settlements they make
frequent forays into the maize and mandioc fields, and they will lay
waste a plantation of sugar-cane in a single night. For this reason it
is that a war of extermination has long been waged against them by the
planters and their dependents.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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