FALKLAND ISLAND AGUARA DOG. 253 
the voyage of the Beagle. Captain Fitzroy having 
favoured us with several communications on this 
subject, has removed our former impressions, and 
we now consider the antarctic animal distinct, not- 
withstanding that there are none of the same species 
on the neighbouring islands or on the main land, 
and no other habitat can be ascribed to it than the 
western Falkland Island. There is one more cause 
of misapprehension requiring notice, and that is the 
presence of two species, varieties or races not clearly 
distinguished in the accounts, excepting by the dif- 
ference of size, and possibly by the smaller having 
a greater length of tail and more white about the 
feet. The D. Antarticus is full three feet long, the 
tail thirteen inches, and the height at the shoulder 
fifteen inches ; the body is bulky, the legs low, and 
the head wolf-like; above, the colour is formed of 
hairs ringed with black and fulvous, together with 
dark tan; the belly and inside of the limbs are pale 
whitish buff, the throat dirty white, the middle of 
the tail brown and the extremity white. There is 
a well-preserved specimen in the Paris museum, 
brought from the Falkland Islands. Mr Bourgain- 
ville found it residing in burrows along the sea 
downs ; it had a feeble kind of barking, and fed 
chiefly on birds. Buffon, who examined two speci- 
mens, being deceived by the colours, concludes that 
it was a race of the common fox. This conclusion 
of the Count’s was a natural result of his system, 
which on the present occasion tended to confuse more 
than to clear up the history of the canide. 
