agouti

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A burrowing rodent of the genus Dasyprocta, native to tropical America and usually having brown fur streaked with gray.
2. n. The alternation of light and dark bands of color in the fur of various animals, producing a grizzled appearance.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The American name of several species of rodent mammals of the genus Dasyprocta and family Dasyproctidæ. The common agouti, or yellow-rumped cavy, D. agouti, is of the size of a rabbit. The upper part of the body is brownish, with a mixture of red and black; the belly yellowish. Three varieties are mentioned, all peculiar to South America and the West Indies. It burrows in the ground or in hollow trees, lives on vegetables, doing much injury to the sugar-cane, is as voracious as a pig, and makes a similar grunting noise. It holds its food in its fore paws, like a squirrel. When scared or angry its hair becomes erect, and it strikes the ground with its hind feet. Its flesh is white and of agreeable taste, and the animal is pursued as game in Brazil. Also spelled aguti and agouty. See acouchy and Dasyprocta.

Wiktionary

1. n. A rodent similar in appearance to a guinea pig but having longer legs.
2. n. A fur containing a pattern of pigmentation in which individual hairs have several bands of light and dark pigment with black tips; any of several genes responsible for this pigmentation

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Zoöl.) A rodent of the genus Dasyprocta, about the size of a rabbit, peculiar to South America and the West Indies. The most common species is the Dasyprocta agouti.
2. n. the color of the agouti{1}, a grayish-brown of grizzled texture; -- used especially to describe the color of the fur of a strain of mice. Also used attributively.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. agile long-legged rabbit-sized rodent of Central America and South America and the West Indies; valued as food