484 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



while the pecuh'ar and characteristic upward slope of the back in the 

 live animal is thus described: "Dorsum cameli instar gibbosum, post 

 coUuni subito ad pectus accliue, sed coxas versus decline." The tail 

 is said to be short, barely reaching the heel, the mammae six in num- 

 ber. They further note its \ery fat belly, beautifully covered with 

 thick black hair Aaried with spots; feet and shanks whitish, claws 

 strongly exserted. These characteristics recall the Raccoon more 

 than an\' other animal. There are, however, eight mammae in this 

 animal, and the ears are not pendulous as described, biit these dis- 

 crepancies may be due to inaccuracy of observation, or the condition 

 of the specimen (perhaps a preserved hide) which the authors seem to 

 have had. The account quoted from Acosta (1590, p. 277) doubtless 

 refers to the same animal and not to a dog. This author, in his 

 Historia natural y moral de las Indias, writes: — " Verdaderos perros 

 no los aula en Indios, sino unos semejantes a perrillos, que los Indios 

 llamauan Alco: y por su semejana a los cjue ha sido lleuados de 

 Espaiia. tambien los Uaman Alco: y son tan amigos destos perrillos 

 que se quitaran el comer, por darselo : y quando van camino, los lleuan 

 consigo acuestas, o en el seno." (Of real dogs there are none' in the 

 Indies, save certain animals resembling little dogs, which the Indians 

 call Alco; and on account of their resemblance to our dogs brought 

 here from Spain, the Indians call these Alco as well: and so fond are 

 they of their little dogs that they deii}^ themselves of food in order to 

 give it to them; and when they go on a journey they carry the little 

 dogs with them on their shoulders or in their arms). The Raccoon 

 rather than a small dog seems to be indicated here, and the habit of 

 carrying them about on journeys would perhaps accoimt for the 

 present-day anomalous distribution of the small species of raccoon in 

 Central America (Panama) and in the islands of Cozumel, Guade- 

 loupe and New Pro^'idence. Acosta's story may also explain the 

 transference of the name Alco to small dogs, though Philippi (1886) 

 says this means dog in the Quichua tongue. 



An early mention of the tame Raccoon is found in Hakluyt's Voy- 

 ages, in A relation of the commodities of Nova Hispania, and the 

 maners of the inhabitants, written by Henry Hawkes merchant, 

 which lived five yeeres in the sayd countrey, written in 1572. He 

 says: "Their dogs are all crooked backt, as many as are of the coun- 

 trey breed, and cannot run fast: their faces are like the face of a pig 

 or a hog, with sharpe noses." 



If Gmelin's name amcricamis be admitted as applying to a Raccoon 

 it would antedate ^Yagler's name hernandezii (1831) for a Mexican 



