ALLEN: DOGS OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 477 



cruza 6 descendientes directos del lobo-colorado 6 gran zorro-colo- 

 rado." It is difficult, however, to see any ground for deri\ing it 

 from the peculiar Pampean Wolf. It is much larger than the Fuegian 

 Dog, and is described by Spegazzini as tall, slenderly built, with fierce 

 eyes; long-haired and bushy-tailed; the color prevailingly dark tan, 

 but occasionally black; rather silent, not barking though gi\ing voice 

 to melancholy howls. 



Fitzroy (see Hamilton Smith, 1840, p. 215) particularly describes a 

 dog seen near the Strait of LeMaire. No temptation would induce its 

 master to part with it. It was the size of a large setter, with a " wolf- 

 ish appearance about the head, and looked extremely savage. Behind 

 the shoulders it was quite smooth and short-haired, but from the 

 shoulders forward it had thick rough hair," giving it a lion-like ap- 

 pearance, " of a dark grey colour, lighter beneath, and white on the 

 belly and breast; the ears were short but pointed, the tail, smooth 

 and tapering;" the fore c^uarters very strong but the hinder appearing 

 weaker. The short-haired tail seems unnatural for a Patagonian Dog, 

 and may have been evidence of a strain of blood from a European 

 source. 



The eastern Fuegians or Onas, are considered by ethnologists to be 

 derivatives of the Patagonians, and no doubt originally had these 

 dogs from their mainland relatives, or brought them at the time when 

 thev colonized the Fuegian countr\'. 



It is unfortunate that no bones or figures of the Patagonian Dog 

 are available for comparison. Ihering (1913) has, however, recorded 

 the skull of a prehistoric dog from Amaicha, Tucuman province, 

 northwestern Argentina, which may represent it, and at the same 

 time indicate nearly its northern range. This skull was 190 mm. in 

 total (?occipitorostral) length, the upper fourth premolar 19 mm., 

 the combined upper molars 20 mm., hence a somewhat larger breed 

 than the Inca Dog. 



The native Patagonian Dog is not to be confused with the dogs 

 introduced by Europeans, that have since become feral on the pampas 

 of southern South America. These, according to various writers 

 (Rengger, 1830; Hamilton Smith, 1840; Rasse, 1879) are mongrel of 

 several breeds, notably one like the Great Dane. They are said to 

 go in troops and to make burrows in which to shelter their young. 

 This burrowing habit has been noticed in case of other feral dogs. 

 Thus Coues (1876) records the case of a brindled cur that became feral, 

 and took up its habitation in a burrow on the open prairie, near 

 Cheyenne, Wyoming, and in this den had a litter of fi^•e puppies. 



