ALLEN: DOGS OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 495 



sought. Indeed Fitzroy wrote that " it is well ascertained that the 

 oldest women of the tribe are sacrificed to the cannibal appetites of 

 their countrymen rather than destroy a single dog. ' Dogs,' say they 

 'catch otters; old women are good for nothing.'" They are vigilant 

 watch-dogs, liarking furiously at a stranger. Their small size, and 

 consequent adaptability as canoe companions, are no doubt the chief 

 cause for their preference by the Canoe Indians of the west Patagonian 

 Archipelago, over the larger dogs foinid among the so-called Foot 

 Indians of the mainland and the eastern and inland parts of Tierra 

 del Fiiego. 



Remarks. — In the absence of specimens for comparison, it is not 

 altogether clear that the Fuegian Dog can be satisfactorily distin- 

 guished except in minor particulars from the Techichi or Alco of Peru 

 and Alexico. ^Molina apparently thought it identical. In general it 

 appears closely similar, but perhaps of more slender build, a bushier 

 tail with recurved tip, well-palmated feet and a shaggier coat, though 

 Fitzroy speaks of variation in this last character. 



In his Bibliography of the Fuegian tribes, Cooper (1917, p. 186) 

 has summarized the references to dogs in the literature referring to 

 these people. As early as 1557, or perhaps 1553, the Chonos at the 

 northern end of the Chilian Archipelago, were credited with having 

 dogs, as appears from Goicueta on the authority of Cortes Hojea. 

 The first mention of dogs in the Strait of Magellan appears^ to be 

 that of Narbrough, who in 1670, found the natives of the Elizabeth 

 Islands in possession of large mongrel dogs of several colors. He 

 compared them to the race of Spanish dogs he had fovmd among the 

 Patagonians of Port Julian. Probably these were not of native stock. 

 Twenty-six years later de Gennes saw five or six small dogs among the 

 Alacalufs of Port Famine. The Manekenkn met by the first Cook 

 expedition in 1 769 at Good Success Bay, southeast end of Tierra del 

 Fuego, had dogs about two feet high with sharp ears; they all barked. 

 The small dog here described is apparently found among the so-called 

 Canoe Indians of the western archipelago, the Yahgans and Alacalufs, 

 the most southerly tri])es of men in the world. 



SUOKT-NOSED I.\DL\N DOG. 



Plates 6, 11. 



1885. Pachycyon robustm J. A. Allen, Mem. M. C. Z., 10, 13 pp., 'S pis. 

 1885. Canis ingae veriagus Nehring, Sitzb. Gesellsch. naturf. freunde B(U-liii, 

 p. 5-13 {not Canis familiaris vertagtisljinnc , Syst. nat., 12th ed., 1766, 1, p. 

 57. 



