l66 ZOOLOGICAL SKETCHES. 



place of refuge ; appeals to his sense of duty were an- 

 swered only by a stolid growl. I never heard him bark ; 

 his voice was an indescribable sort of half-howl, some- 

 what resembling the bay of a hound, though he used 

 it rather as an expression of anger and pain. He was 

 an incorrigible thief, and when the cook attempted to 

 improve his morals with a broom-stick he transferred 

 his headquarters to a neighboring mesquite grove, and 

 finally evanished altogether, but continued to utilize his 

 topographical knowledge, to judge from the frequent 

 coincidence of dark nights with the disappearance of 

 chickens and ducks. One evening I met him on the 

 road to Fresnillo, and, recognizing my voice, he fol- 

 lowed me as if nothing had happened till we reached 

 the outskirts of the town, where he began to hesitate, 

 and finally slunk off into a ravine, and that was the last 

 I saw of him. 



It takes several generations to eliminate the savagery 

 of a "tramp dog." The Peruvian pampa cur {Canis 

 Azarce), though evidently the descendant of some do- 

 mestic mongrel, is almost incurably shy. By dint of 

 persistent kindness Rengger succeeded in gaining the 

 confidence of a young pampa dog ; but at the approach 

 of a stranger he never failed to dart under his master's 

 bed, howling as if he had a cramp in the stomach if the 

 visitor so much as looked at him. The Mexican sierra- 

 goats are less misanthropic and cannot be reproached 

 with false modesty of any kind, but it is next to im- 



