206 THE NATURALIST IX NICARAGUA. [Ch. XI. 



on its snout, and ash coloured, spotted with black and 

 tawny. 



Tschudi makes two races of indigenous dogs in tropical 

 America. 1. The Canis caraibicus (Lesson), without 

 hair, and which does not bark. 2. The Canis in gee 

 (Tschudi), the common hairy dog, which has pointed nose 

 and ears, and barks.* The small eatable dog of the 

 Mexicans was called by them Techichi ; and Humboldt de- 

 rives the name from Tetl, a stone, and says that it means 

 " a dumb dog," but this appears rather a forced deriva- 

 tion. Chichi is Aztec for "to suck ; " and it seems to me 

 more probable that the little dogs they eat, and which 

 are spoken of by the Spaniards as making very tender 

 and delicate food, were the puppies of the Xoloitzcuintli, 

 and that Techichi meant " a sucker." 



Whether the hairless dog was or was not the Techichi 

 of which the Mexicans made such savoury dishes is an 

 open question, but there can be no doubt that the former 

 was found in tropical America by the Spanish con- 

 querors, and that it has survived to the present time, 

 with little or no change. That it should not have inter- 

 mixed with, the common haired variety, and lost its 

 distinctive characters, is very remarkable. It has not 

 been artificially preserved, for instead of being looked on 

 with favour by the Indians, Humboldt states that in 

 Peru, where it is abundant, it is despised and ill-treated. 

 Under such circumstances, the variety can only have 

 been preserved through not interbreeding with the 

 common form, either from a dislike to such unions, or 

 by some amount of sterility when they are formed. 



* J. J. von Tschudi, quoted by Humboldt, "Aspects of Nature," 

 English, edition, vol. i. p. 111. 



