ALLEN: DOGS OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 487 



Though it has acquired the adult dentition, it is not old, and the 

 temporal ridges have not yet united to fonn a crest. A very similar 

 skull from French Guiana is figured by Blainville (1S41) under the 

 name Canisfamiliaris cayoinrnsis, by which he seems to have intended 

 to name the native dog. 



I am indebted to Dr. \V. C. Farrabee for a photograph, (Plate 5, 

 fig. 2) which is assumed to illustrate this dog. It was secured by him 

 while studying the Macusi tribe in southern British Guiana, and 

 shows an old dog, and a puppy, accompanying a child of the tribe. 

 The larger dog has a narrow head, and erect ears, the tips of which 

 have been cropped, probably as a propitiation to evil spirits; the body 

 is short in proportion to the lean limbs, the tail (better seen in the 

 picture of the puppy) is long, upcurxing, and like the l)ody, short- 

 haired. Dr. Farrabee writes that these dogs "are small, yellow and 

 white, or brindle and white, and may be very much mixed with 

 European dogs." Of their ancestry, howe\er, there is no evidence, 

 though the erect ears and slender proportions faxor tlie supposition 

 that they retain a measure of their aboriginal character. The expres- 

 sion of the larger dog recalls the " tristi aspectu " of Hernandez's 

 description of the Techichi. It is not unlikely that the small dogs 

 found by the Jesuits among the Indians of the southern Antilles and 

 parts of Colombia and Central America may hnw been of the breed 

 here described. 



Dr. Farrabee writes me further concerning son\e larger dogs whicli 

 he saw among the Wanoai tril)e "who occupy the Akarai Mountains, 

 northern Brazil to southern British Guiana. This tribe, on the 

 Brazil side had never seen white men before [his visit]. They have 

 the best dogs of all the tribes visited and they take the best care of 

 them. These dogs are noted among the tribes a month's journey 

 away. They keep the dogs tied on raised platforms and allow them 

 t^xercise morning and evening. The dogs are all black and white 

 and of good size." A small photograph of these dogs shows a hound- 

 like aspect and drooping ears. They are probably of European ori- 

 gin and perhaps the same as the dogs mentioned by Bancroft (1769, 

 p. 140) who says: " The Dogs of Guiana seem to be of a species between 

 the Hound and Land-Spaniel: their make is slender, their ears long 

 and pendulous, with a blunt nose, and large mouth: their bodies 

 are covered with long shaggy hair, generally of a fallow colour. The}- 

 pursue and start the Game by the scent." 



I am indebted to J. Rodway, Esq., of the Museum at Georgetown, 

 British Guiana, for a brief note on the hunting-dog of the present-day 



