yS NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



nose to the root of the tail it measured 36 inches : 

 the tail itself was 13 inches long. The fur was 

 of a reddish or yellowish colour, suffused with black 

 above and paling to whitish below ; the sides of the 

 neck near the ears were rich fulvous and the legs 

 also were uniformly if less distinctly of this hue. 

 The tail at the base was coloured like the body, 

 becoming black in the middle and white at the tip. 

 Althouofh from its small size the Cams antarc- 

 ticus resembled a fox it was a true wolf, as indicated 

 not only by its sturdy build and the moderate 

 proportions of its tail, but also by the convexity of 

 the posterior margin of the orbit in the dried skull : 

 foxes are of slighter proportions, have ample brushes, 

 and the hinder border of the orbit is concave. 



The early history of the Falkland wolf is imper- 

 fectly known ; the first record of its existence appears 

 to be that of Strong's men, who landed on the islands 

 in January, 1690, and took there by means of grey- 

 hounds, a young "fox" which they succeeded in 

 keeping alive on board ship for several months.^ 

 Dom Pernety "Histoire d'un voyage aux Isles 

 Maloaines" (Falkland) mentions having met with 

 these animals in 1763-64. Commodore Byron, of 

 H.M.S. "Dolphin," visited the Falklands in Jan- 



1 Several well-known naturalists liave erroneoxisly stated that Dom 

 Pernety was the original discoverer of this wolf. Strong, however, anti- 

 dated him by tliree-qnarters of a century. The "foxes" which Strong 

 found on the Falklands "twice as big as those in England" were 

 evidently the Canis antarcticus and no other species. Other observers 

 have similarly compared these animals to very large foxes. 



