SOUTH AMERICA 401 



Foxlike in appearance, this animal stands 15 inches at the 

 shoulder. Its coat is thick and soft, lacking coarse long hair 

 and having a bushy tail. Pocock (1913) describes a specimen 

 as having the prevailing color of the body brown "relieved by 

 fine speckling due to the narrow pale band on the individual 

 hairs." Below, the color is brownish, except that the posterior 

 part of the belly and upper end of the throat are white, the 

 chin and lower jaw white with a fuscous tint. There is a 

 marked fuscous patch above the hock of the hind leg. The tail 

 on its basal two-fifths is like the back, the middle part black 

 and the tip white. The ears, according to Pocock, are unusu- 

 ally small. The skull is characterized among other things by 

 the lyrate sagittal area and truncated instead of pointed occip- 

 ital crest. In these respects it agrees with some other of the 

 South American "foxes." Mivart (1890) gives the following 

 measurements : Length of head and body, 970 mm. ; tail, 285 ; 

 hind foot, 180; ear, 65; skull length, 110. It is said that the 

 animal formerly occurring on the East Falkland Island was 

 smaller and redder than the one on West Falkland. 



The history of the Falkland fox has been several times writ- 

 ten, most recently by Renshawtl931). He points out that the 

 animal was first discovered in January, 1690, on South Falk- 

 land by Strong's party, who captured one alive and kept it for 

 several months on their ship. Unfortunately the vessel 

 finally had occasion to discharge its guns, which so startled the 

 fox that it leaped overboard and perished. In his voyage of 

 1763-64, the French navigator Pernetty again found the 

 species, and the discovery of it had been credited to him by 

 writers, until Strong's earlier account was brought to notice. 

 In 1765 Commodore Byron took possession of the islands for 

 Great Britain, and his landing party records that several of 

 these foxes came to meet the men, wading out toward them in 

 curiosity at the strange apparition. The sailors, however, 

 believing the "wolves" were actuated by ferocity, at first 

 retreated, but later found that the animals were quite without 

 fear. The animals were so numerous that the men set fire to 

 the long grass and presently saw great numbers of them run- 

 ning to escape the flames. Byron brought a live one back to 

 England, and this individual was later described by Pennant 

 and thus became the basis of Kerr's name. 



When Darwin during the voyage of the Beagle stopped at 



