EINAR LÖNNBERG, SOME SOUTH AMERICAN CANID.E. 11 



dog of that kind which is kept by the Yaghan Indians on 

 the eastern side of the island. This skeleton now belongs 

 to the E. Nat. Hist. Museum in Stockholm, where I have 

 examined especialJy the skull. 



The dog was obtained directly from a party of Indians, 

 which just had been captured. When asking Prof. Norden- 

 SKJÖLD, whether he believed that the dog in question was 

 of an unmixed native breed he has kindly replied as follows: 

 »The dog is probably of as unmixed origin as the dögs of 

 these Indians on the whole are. The settlements of the 

 Europeans in those parts were at that time not old, so that 

 it will appear, that the dögs of the Indians were not mixed 

 with imported blood, although the opposite possibility is not 

 excluded.» 



Presuming that this Yaghan dog really is of a native 

 breed it would, of course, be of interest to examine it for 

 the purpose of finding out, whether it indicated any affinity 

 with any of the indigenous species of wild Canidce repre- 

 sented in South America. That the so called domesticated 

 dögs are of polyphyletic origin is nowadays generally 

 admitted. It would then lie rather near at hand to suspect 

 that the Yaghan Indian,^ or their ancestors should have tamed 

 a South American wild dog to use as hunting companion. 



Dog from the Yaghan Indians, Tierra del Fuego. 



Greateat length of skull 147,5 mm 



Condylo-incisive length 141 » 



Basilar length 130 » 



Zygomatic breadth 81 » 



Distance from orbit to tip of premaxillary 63 » 



Length of nasals mesially 46,0 » 



Interorbital breadth , 26,2 » 



Distance between postorbital processes 39,3 » 



Postorbital constriction 33 » 



Breadth of braincase • . . 51,5 » 



Distance from foramen magnum to hind margin of palate . • • 58,5 » 



Length of palate 71,3 » 



Length of bulla 19,5 » 



Breadth of bulla 13,5 » 



^ From the narrative about the voyage with the Beagle it is known 

 that the Yaghan Indians at that time had numerous dögs. 



