26 



THE ANTARCTIC WOLF. 



CANIS ANTARCTICUS. 



Canis antarcticus, Shaw, Gen. Zoology, vol. i. p. 331 (1800) ; Desmarest, 

 Maramalogie, p. 199 (1820) ; Waterhouse, Zool. of H.M.S. 

 'Beagle/ Mammalia, p. 7, plate 4 (1839) ; J. A. Wagner, 

 Supplement to Schreber's Saugth., Abth. ii. p. 402 ; Bur- 

 meister, Republique Argentine, vol. iii. p. 142. 



Dasicyon antarcticus, Hamilton Smith, Naturalist's Library, vol. ix. 

 p. 252, pi. 23 (1839). 



Pseudalopex antarcticus, Gray, Proc. Zool. Soc. 1868, p, 531 ; id. Cata- 

 logue of Carnivorous Mammalia, p. 200. 



Antarctic Dog, Pennant, Quadrupeds, 1st edition, p. 240 (1781), 3rd 

 edition, p. 257 (1793). 



Loup-renard, Bougainville, Voyage autour du Monde, p. 65 (1771). 



THIS small species of Wolf, only found in the Falkland Islands, where 

 its numbers are rapidly diminishing, appears to have been first described 

 by Dom. Pernetty in his ' Histoire d'un voyage aux isles Maloaines,' in 

 1763 and 1764*. The explorers of that expedition, seeing that the 

 animals advanced towards them, were inclined to regard them as 

 ferocious creatures ; but Pernetty sagaciously observes : " Peut-etre 

 cet animal n'est-il pas feroce, et ne venait-il se presenter et s'approcher 

 de nous, que parce qu'il n'avait jamais vu d'hommes." 



The sailors of Commodore Byron's expedition f were similarly 

 astonished and not a little alarmed. " The master having been sent 

 one day to sound the coast upon the south shore, reported at his return 

 that four creatures of great fierceness, resembling wolves, ran up to 

 their bellies in the water to attack the people in the boat, and that as 



* See second edition, vol. i. p. 355. 



t Voyage Round the World in H.M.S. 'Dolphin,' 1767. 



