164 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



The most interesting of my Mexican pets was a young 

 perro pelon, or " tramp dog," whose mother had been 

 imprudent enough to quarter her litter under the porch 

 of a sacristia, or wayside chapel. But the child of the 

 sanctuary had all the instincts of a young highway- 

 robber. As soon as he could walk he waylaid the 

 guinea-pigs and began to take a suspicious interest in 

 the roosting-places of the landlord's chickens. The 

 neighbors' boys brought him all the young rabbits they 

 could catch, and he had a curious way of playing with 

 them, — not like a sportive puppy, but like a young fox 

 practising for business purposes. He would cripple 

 them just enough to equalize the chances of the game, 

 and then give them a fair race for their lives, taking 

 care, however, to suppress any signs of excessive vi- 

 tality. He never killed anything outright, but deferred 

 his feast till incidental injuries had disqualified his vic- 

 tims for further sport. One half-grown coney, however, 

 managed to get away from him, and would have es- 

 caped if the boys had not recaptured it ; and when they 

 restored it to him he massacred it on the spot, probably 

 for having abused his confidence. Well-to-do house- 

 dogs generally content themselves with eating their fill 

 at the regular meal-times, but the pelon would never 

 trust the chances of the next day, and invariably re- 

 moved the remnants of his dinner, even potato-chips 

 and tortillas. He had caches all over the farm, but es- 

 pecially in the rear of an old garden-wall, where he 



