AGOUTI  , or AGUTt, the

West Indian name of Dasyprocta aguti, a 'terrestrial rodent of the size of a rabbit, common to Trinidad and Guiana, and classed in the family Caviidae . Under the same term may be included the other species of Dasyprocta, of which there are about half a score in tropical America . Agoutis are slender-limbed rodents, with five front and three hind toes (the first front toe very minute), and very short tails . The hair, especially on the hind-quarters, is coarse and somewhat rough; the colour being generally rufous brown . The molar teeth have cylindrical crowns, with several islands and a single lateral fold of enamel when worn . In habits agoutis are nocturnal, dwelling in forests, where they conceal themselves during the day in hollow tree-trunks, or in burrows among roots . Active and graceful in their movements, their pace is either a kind of trot or a series of springs following one another so rapidly as to look like a gallop . They take readily to water, in which they swim well . Their food comprises leaves, roots, nuts and other fruits . They do much harm to plantations of sugar-cane and bananas . In captivity the females produce only one or two young at a birth .