354 Mr. 0. Thomas on 



Now, as tlie name antarcticus has to be fixed on one or 

 otiier of the two forms in question, I propose to assign it 

 definitely to the smaller one, irrespective of locality. My 

 reason for doing this is that the original description * " was 

 taken from one brought to England when we possessed those 

 Antarctic spots/' and as the chief Englishman who iiad been 

 about that period to the Falklands and mentioned the 

 •animals, Commodore Byron, staved for the greater part of iiis 

 time at Port Egmontf, West Falklands, and named a place 

 on its southern shore " Fox Bay," tlie specimen brought to 

 England was very probably from that island, in which I 

 believe the smaller species to occur. No certainty is possible, 

 but this seems the best choice to make in tlie circumstances. 



That the larger animal was a native of the Eastern and 

 the smaller of the Western Island is indicated, firstly, by 

 Darwin's account, and, secondly, by the localities of tlie two 

 British Museum specimens having been happily recorded by 

 Dr. Gray in the original Museum register on their arrival. 



Airainst this, however, is to be set the fact that no. 636 of 

 the College of Surgeons, which is the larger form, is said to 

 have been picked up on West Falkland, as recorded by 

 Flower in the Catalogue. But I am inclined to disbelieve 

 this, in the face of the other evidence, especially as the words 

 "East'' and "West" are sufficiently alike to have been 

 misread at some stage of the proceedings. Mr. l^urne has 

 been good enough to look up Flower's letters of the date, but 

 can only find his original entry " West" in the Catalogue. 



Then with regard to sex. It might be suggested that the 

 large specimens were males and the small females — as is, 

 indeed, the case with the two skins available. But, ajiart 

 from the fact that the difference is vastly greater than the 

 sexual difTerence between other S. -American Canida?, we are 

 fortunately able to determine, with fair certainty, the sexes of 

 the skulls from the sizes of the canines. According to my 

 gexing on these lines, as indicated in the table of measure- 

 ments above, two of the smaller skulls are those of males, 

 exceeding the known female by about the same degree as is 

 usual in the group, while of the larger form K.(y,.S. no. ()3() 

 appears to be a ft;nnde. If this b(i correct, we thus have both 

 sexes of both s|)ecies represented in the series available. 



I have thought it siiitalde to attach to this species the name 



* Pennant, Qiiadr. (1 ) i. p. 240 (1781). On this description tlio nnnio 

 antarcticus wHH frivftTi in ]7'.»9 by J{<!clistein (Uebers. viorf. Tliiere, i. 

 p. 271), antedating Shaw, to whom the name is generally accredited, by 

 one year. 



t "Jlawkeswortb's ' Voyages,' i. p. 48 (1773). 



