8o NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



to fear of the prowling wolves. If report be 

 true, the geese had but too much reason for fear : 

 since it is said that the wolves themselves had 

 been originally turned out on the Falklands by the 

 Spaniards, to consume all supplies and thus prevent 

 other nations from anchoring on the islands ! Thus 

 left to their own devices, the wolves had attacked 

 and almost exterminated a small native fox, and had 

 taken possession of its burrows. True foxes are 

 unknown in South America : Col. Hamilton Smith, 

 in writing of the culpeo or Magellanic "fox" (Canis 

 iiiagellanicus), has, however, remarked " we do not 

 know if it is this species which is stated to exist also 

 on the Falklands and to have been nearly extirpated 

 by the larger Dusicyon (i.e., Canis) antarcticusy 

 The culpeo still occurs in Tierra del Fuego and may 

 really have once inhabited the Falklands : it is a 

 smaller species than the Antarctic wolf, which Capt. 

 Fitzroy has stated to have been " twice as bulky 

 as an English fox, and twice as high on the legs." 

 Moreover, in its latter days the Canis antarcticus 

 turned a confirmed sheep-worrier ; so that it would 

 not have been likely to show much mercy to weaker 

 animals, even of its own kind. Be this as it may, 

 no trace remains of the small native fox of the 

 Falklands ; perhaps it never existed. As for seizing 

 the burrows of their victims, the wolves are just as 

 likely to have constructed them themselves, as their 

 nearest living ally, the coyote or prairie-wolf does to 



