CANIS. 67 
of very local distribution; and, though it is doubtless found in other parts, our 
experience of it was confined to the hacienda of San Gerénimo in Vera Paz, where it 
was not at all uncommon. ‘The attraction to this spot was a flock of sheep kept on 
the hacienda, upon which the Coyotes maintained a constant watch, ever ready to seize a 
stray animal or one that had not been brought into the fold at night. This fold was a 
square enclosure surrounded by a wall too high for the Coyotes to climb. Almost any 
still night one might hear the baying of these animals from the old convent which 
sheltered us so long and so hospitably.” Still further to the southward, the range of the 
Coyote extends to Costa Rica, where Dr. v. Frantzius tells us that it is now confined 
to the north-western provinces of Guanacaste and Nicoya; it there inhabits the natural 
savannas of the south-western slope of the volcanic range, and does great damage about 
the haciendas, whence it constantly carries off the young calves. Formerly it was found 
on the Llanos of Turucares, and was sometimes seen in the neighbourhood of Alhajuela ; 
but these formerly pastoral regions are now occupied by agriculturalists, and the 
Coyotes have consequently withdrawn to the first-named provinces, where they have 
greatly increased in numbers, in spite of the efforts made to keep them down by the 
use of strychnine ®. 
In Dr. v. Frantzius’s opinion it is not improbable that the spread of this Wolf 
through Central America was subsequent to the Spanish conquest. He considers it 
improbable that they should have existed among the thick population of the semi- 
civilized natives who then occupied the western slopes, and thinks that their invasion 
may have been coincident with that of the European cattle, which were introduced in 
the first decade of the sixteenth century. 
2. VULPES. 
Vulpes, Brisson, Rég. An. p. 239 (1755). 
The only representative of this genus within our limits is the well-known Grey Fox 
of North America, easily distinguishable from its Neotropical congeners by the clear 
grizzled grey of its upper parts, its rufous ears, and its dusky brush, washed beneath 
with rufous. As will presently be seen, it presents a considerable amount of variation 
in size, but in coloration it is more constant than most of its family. 
1. Vulpes virginianus. 
Canis argenteus, Schreber, Saugeth. iii. p. 585 (ante 1777, descr. orig.)*. 
Canis cinereo-argenteus, Schreber, tom. cit. pl. xcil. (ex Brisson)’. 
Canis virginianus, Schreber, tom. cit. p. 585, pl. xcii. B (ex Catesby)’. 
Vulpes (Urocyon) virginianus, Baird, Mamm. N. Am. p. 188°; Rep. U.S. Mex. Bound. Surv. ii., 
Mamm. p. 16°; Allen, Bull. Mus. Comp. Zool. i. p. 160°. 
Vulpes littoralis, Baird, Mamm. N. Am, p. 143 (1857, descr. orig.)’. 
K 2 
