90 NATURAL HISTORY ESSAYS 



portion of its range that denseness which distin- 

 guishes the pelt of the Antarctic wolf ; hence on 

 Molina's theory we see in the southern culpeo 

 a Falkland wolf in the making. The typical 

 magellanicus is certainly greyer and smaller than 

 the Cams antaj-ctictis and the tail is tipped with 

 black instead of white: but other South American 

 CanidcB exhibit a variation quite as remarkable. The 

 cr2h-^2Xva^C.cancrivo7nis varies both in colour (grayer 

 or redder) and in size : an example which died in the 

 Zoological Gardens in 1879 was regarded as an 

 aberrant cancT-ivortis by Professor Mivart, as a 

 distinct species (C. rttdis) by Dr. Giinther. Azara's 

 dog (Canis azarae) is known in at least two phases, 

 one (Va7' patagonicus) being pale-coated, while the 

 other ( Var fulvipes) is of a dark hue. Canis 

 parvidens is yellowish grey: C microtis is iron-grey. 

 The striped-tailed dog (C urostictus) seems to 

 combine in its fur a mixed assortment of all the 

 colours sported by its congeners, being of a rufous 

 ochre tint washed with black and white, and bearing 

 in the middle two-fifths of its grey tail a dorsal line 

 of sable which recalls the black tip seen in the culpeo. 

 Indeed it is difficult to say where one species ends 

 and another begins, and one might well hesitate to 

 pronounce an ex cathedra statement on the zoological 

 status of the Antarctic wolf. The late Dr. J. E. 

 Gray ranked the Falkland species as a fox-like dog, 

 placing it amongst the other lesser Canidce just 



