472 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



Inca Dog. 

 Plate 9. 



1844. Canis ingae Tschudi, Unters. liber die fauna Peruana. Therologie, 



p. 13, 249. 

 1885. Canis ingae peciiarms Nehring, Sitzb. Gesellsch. naturf. freunde 



Berlin, p. 5-13. 



Characters. — This is the hirger dog of the ancient Peruvians. It 

 was about the size of a small Collie, l)ut more heavily proportioned. 

 Tschudi describes it as having the head small, snout rather sharply 

 pointed, upper lip not cleft; ears erect, triangular, small; body short 

 and strong, squarely built ("untersetzt"), legs rather short; tail 

 about two thirds the length of body, fully haired and curled fonvard. 

 Pelage rough, long, and thick; color dark ochre-yellow with dark 

 wavy shadings; belly and inner side of limbs somewhat brighter than 

 the ground color of the back. No light spots above the eyes. 



The skull is heavy in proportion to its size, with a narrow rostrum. 

 The brain-case is rugose for the attachment of muscles, yet the tem- 

 poral muscles, even in old dogs seem to little more than meet medially, 

 so that at most only a low sagittal crest is formed in old aninials 

 except at the extreme occiput, where it is contrastingly marked, form- 

 ing a high knife-edge on the median line of the interparietal. The 

 palate shows a strong thickening at its posterior end, forming two low 

 ridges one on each side between the last molar and the posterior narial 

 opening. 



DistrihutioiL — The former distribution of this breed has not been 

 definitely traced. ]\Iummified remains are known from Ancon, 

 Peru, and from various sites that have been excavated in that country. 

 In Tschudi 's time it appeared to be confined to the upland tribes of 

 Indians. Of this type were all the mummies and skulls of dogs 

 found by him in the ancient graves among the Sierras. It probably 

 was kept by the Indians of northwestern Argentina as well. 



Nomenclature. — Tschudi in 1844, was apparently the first to name 

 this as a distinct breed of dog, Canis inc/ac. Forty years later Nehring 

 in writing of the dog-mummies from the ancient necropolis of Ancon, 

 referred it to a collie-like type with the combination, Canis ingav 

 pccuarins. It is, however, very different cranially and otherwise 

 from the Collie. 



Measurnnrnfs. — The largest Inca Dog among those from Ancon 



