^25 



CiC? of the hear. T^ut this quadruped differs 

 essentially from the beai' in other respects thaa 

 iis size, and all well-informed naturalists are 

 aj;Teed that this animal belongs neither to the 

 geims nor the or>!er of bears ; it is of course 

 riciicuhnis to bring forward in support of thig 

 hvpothcsis, two animals so disiinct as to have 

 nothing' in common but a name so improperly 

 given to ove of them. I could adduce a great 

 number of instances of this kind, were I to go 

 through with the vari.)us quadrupeds of America 

 that have been considered as species of the old 

 continent;, altered by the physical influence of 

 the new. 



South America possesses but a very few spe- 

 cies of animals that are similar to those of the 

 old world, and these have preserved their origi- 

 nal appearance, or rather, as might be expected 

 from the influence of so mild a climate, haye 

 improved it. Of this number, in Chili, arc the 

 thii fox, the hare, the otter, and the mouse. 

 The foxes are of three kinds : the guru, or the 

 common fox, the chilla, or the field fox, and the 

 paijiic-guru, or the blue fox. This last is very 

 common in the Archipelago of Chiloe, where it 

 h black. All these foxes aie of the same size as 

 the European fox. 



In its form the hare of Chili resembles that of 

 Eiir pe, but is superior to it in size, for it ii 

 sometimes found of twenty pounds weiji,ht> a 



YOL. I. Q 



