. Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia. Mammals; Animal behavior. THE GUINEA PIG. Our universally known Guinea Pig (Cavia porcel- lus) has so far, in point of pedigree, shared the fate of many domestic animals; its progenitors can not be traced with accuracy. The record of its geneal- ogy is lost in antiquity. As far as known the little creature was introduced into Europe by the Dutch, soon after the discovery of America, that is, in the sixteenth century. Gesner had even at his early day become acquainted with i
. Brehm's Life of animals : a complete natural history for popular home instruction and for the use of schools. Mammalia. Mammals; Animal behavior. THE GUINEA PIG. Our universally known Guinea Pig (Cavia porcel- lus) has so far, in point of pedigree, shared the fate of many domestic animals; its progenitors can not be traced with accuracy. The record of its geneal- ogy is lost in antiquity. As far as known the little creature was introduced into Europe by the Dutch, soon after the discovery of America, that is, in the sixteenth century. Gesner had even at his early day become acquainted with it, and from that time it has been bred continuously, but until recently the original stock from which it descended was quite commonly (and probably erroneously) thought to be the Brazilian Aperea or Restless Cavy {Cavia aperea). Nehring's investigations, however, have proved that it springs from the Peruvian Cavy ( Cavia cutleri), a species closely allied to the Rest- less Cavy, and kept in that country in a domesti- cated state as early as the times of the Incas. As 0^ MRajM. GUINEA PIGS. The Guinea Pig is indigenous to South America although it has become a not uncommon domestic pet in Europe. Cultivation has developed many variations in their color. The term "Guinea Pig " is prob- ably a corruption of "Guiana ; As will be seen by the picture, they are plump, intelligent, pretty animals, and are very docile in captivity. (Cavia fiorcellus.) A. Stubel told Nehring, it is even to-day bred and used as an article of diet by the Indians of Peru, Ecuador and Columbia; but it has never been found with the isolated and uncivilized aborigines of Brazil. Color of the Besides uniformly colored Guinea Guinea Pig a Re- Pigs, among which the white ones suit of Breeding, predominate, one usually sees them of three colors: spotted with white, tawny yellow and black. As a result of Nehring's investigations of the Guinea Pig mummies in the cemetery of Ancon in Peru, it
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