140 FALKLAND ISLANDS. [CHAP, nu 



contend against pre-existing enemies, in the fox and some large hawks. 

 The French naturalists have considered the black variety a distinct 

 species, and called it Lepus Magellanicus.* They imagined that 

 Magellan, when talking of an animal under the name of " conejos " in 

 the Strait of Magellan, referred tr this species ; but he was alluding to 

 a small cavy, which to this day is thus called by the Spaniards. The 

 Gauchos laughed at the idea of tKe black kind being different from the 

 grey, and they said that at all events it had not extended its range any 

 further than the grey kind ; that the two were never found separate ; 

 and that they readily bred together, and produced piebald offspring. 

 Of the latter I now possess a specimen, and it is marked about the head 

 differently from the French specific description. This circumstance 

 shows how cautious naturalists should be in making species ; for even 

 Cuvier, on looking at the skull of one of these rabbits, thought it was 

 probably distinct 1 



The only quadruped native to the island t is a large wolf-like fox 

 CCanis antarcticus), which is common to both East and West Falkland. 

 I have do doubt it is a peculiar species, and confined to this archi- 

 pelago ; because many sealers, Gauchos, and Indians, who have visited 

 these islands, all maintain that no such animal is found in any part of 

 South America. Molina, from a similarity in habits, thought that this 

 was the same with his " culpeu ; " J but I have seen both, and they are 

 quite distinct. These wolves are well known, from Byron's account of 

 their tameness and curiosity, which the sailors, who ran into the water 

 to avoid them, mistook for fierceness. To this day their manners 

 remain the same. They have been observed to enter a tent, and actually 

 pull some meat from beneath the head of a sleeping seaman. The 

 Gauchos also have frequently in the evening killed them, by holding out 

 a piece of meat in one hand, and in the other a knife ready to stick 

 them. As far as I am aware, there is no other instance in any part of 

 the world, of so small a mass of broken land, distant from a continent, 

 possessing so large an aboriginal quadruped peculiar to itself. Their 

 numbers have rapidly decreased ; they are already banished from that 

 half of the island which lies to the eastward of the neck of land between 

 St. Salvador Bay and Berkeley Sound. Within a very few years after 

 these islands shall have become regularly settled, in all probability this 



* Lesson's " Zoology of the Voyage of the Coquille" torn, i., p. 1 68. All 

 the early voyagers, and especially Bougainville, distinctly state that the 

 wolf-like fox was the only native animal on the island. The distinction of 

 the rabbit as a species, is taken from peculiarities in the fur, from the shape 

 of the head, and from the shortness of the ears. I may here observe that 

 the difference between the Irish and English hare rests upon nearly similar 

 characters, only more strongly marked. 



f I have reason, however, to suspect that there is a field-mouse. The 

 common European rat and mouse have roamed far from the habitations of 

 the settlers. The common hog has also run wild on one islet : all are of a 

 black colour : the boars are very fierce, and have great tusks. 



\ The "culpeu" is the Canis Magellanicus brought home by Captain 

 King from the Strait of Magellan. It is common in Chile. 



