Agouti
2 of the 7 encyclopedias on this shelf carry an entry for Agouti. Both are reproduced below, so you can see where they agree and where they differ.
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
a South American animal, of the family hystricidæ, order rodentia. The agoutis live for the most part upon the surface of the ground, not climbing nor digging to any depth. By eating the roots of the sugar-cane, they are often AGOUTI the cause of great injury to the planters. The ears are short, and the tail rudimentary. The animal is nearly 2 feet long. It is found in Guiana, Brazil, Paraguay, and some of the Antilles. 6-Vol. I-Cyc AGRA. (1) A division of the United Provinces of Agra and Oudh, British India; area, 10,151 square miles; pop., about 5,000,000. (2) A district of the same name, consisting of a level plain diversified by san sandstone hills. The soil is barren and sandy, and, through the failure of rains, famines frequently occur; area, 1,850 square miles; pop. about 1,000,000. (3) The capital of Agra district, on the right bank of the Jumna, 110 miles S. E. of Delhi, and 841 miles N. W. of Calcutta. Agra is the handsomest city in upper India. Some of the public buildings, monuments of the house of Timur, are on a scale of striking magnificence. Among these are the fortress, built by Akbar, within the walls of which are the palace and audiencehall of Shah Jehan, the Moti Masjid, or pearl mosque, and the Jama Masjid, or great mosque. Still more celebrated is the white marble Taj Mahal, situated without the city, about a mile to the the fort. The city is considered especially sacred through Vishnu's in carnation there as Parasu Rama. The climate, during the hot and rainy seasons (April to September), is very injurious to Europeans. The principal articles of trade are cotton, tobacco, salt, grain, and sugar. There are manufactures of shoes, pipe stems stems, and gold lace, and of inlaid mosaic work, for which Agra is famous. During the Indian mutiny, in 1857, it was a place of refuge for the Europeans. It is a very important railway center, and has many claims to be regarded as the commercial capital of the northwest. Pop. about 200,000.
Aiton's Encyclopedia (1910)
a genus of gnawing mammals related closely to the guinea pig . The agouti is found in parts of South America and in some of the West Indian Islands. There are several species. The common agouti has the general appearance of a rabbit, but it is larger. It is sometimes called the South American hare. The toes are armed with strong claws for securing food; but, unlike the rabbit, the agouti does not burrow. The tail is a short naked stump on which the animal sits when eating. The agoutis are forest animals. They live in colonies and feed on vegetable food entirely. Roots and nuts are a favorite diet. Like the woodchuck, the striped "gopher," and the prairie dog , the agouti is a pest, especially in sugar growing localities. The little animals destroy the sugar plantations by gnawing the roots of the cane. The planters poison them in great numbers. The natives of Brazil and Guiana regard the flesh of the agouti as a delicacy. See Guinea Pig 2026 Editor's Note: Science later found the agouti indispensable to a whole industry: its teeth are among the few strong enough to gnaw open the woody Brazil-nut pod, and the nuts it buries and forgets are how the Brazil-nut tree reproduces — so the entire wild Brazil-nut harvest depends on this rodent. (Ed: BR 2026-07-21)