156 PATAGONIAN EXPEDITIONS: ZOOLOGY. 



External Characters. — General color above gray, varied with black, 

 most strongly over the median dorsal area, where in some specimens 

 there is a tendency to an ill-defined blackish median band. The pelage 

 is long and heavy, and consists of long rather stiff over-hair and an 

 abundance of soft woolly underfur. Top and sides of nose as far as the 

 eyes, crown, nape, and outer surface of ears rufescent brown ; forehead 

 and sides of head more grayish, the hairs being conspicuously tipped 

 with whitish ; dorsal region gray, strongly varied with black and strongly 

 suffused with rufous, beneath the surface the hair and fur being dusky for 

 the basal third, then strongly yellowish rufous to the tips of the fur, the 

 projecting points of the stiff over-hair broadly ringed with white and 

 tipped with black ; sides paler and grayer,, with paler underfur and less 

 black at the tips of the hairs ; chin dusky ; anal region fulvus ; rest of 

 lower surface dull yellowish gray with a whitish median band extending 

 more or less regularly from the throat to the base of the tail ; underfur 

 dark gray basally, passing into pale yellowish gray apically, with a patch 

 of darker underfur behind the fore limbs and just in front of the thighs ; 

 fore limbs light yellowish rufous on the anterior and inner surface and 

 deep rufous on the posterior and outer surface ; hind limbs pale fulvous 

 anteriorly, deep dark rufous posteriorly ; tail large and full, the underfur 

 whitish gray at the base, gradually passing into dark sooty gray apically, 

 the portion of the over-hair extending beyond the underfur yellowish 

 gray tipped with black, giving a more or less blackish superficial tint 

 throughout, with the whole tip of the tail black for nearly two inches ; 

 also a large well-defined spot of black near the base on the upper sur- 

 face ; ears externally dark cinnamon brown, the edges and inner surface 

 pale fulvous. 



Young. — The nursing pups in first pelage are clothed in a soft woolly 

 coat, which over the whole dorsal area is dingy gray basally, darker sub- 

 apically, and fulvous gray on the surface with scattered long dusky- 

 tipped over-hair; the whole top of the head and limbs strongly reddish 

 fulvous or pale rufous, the nose and the ears externally darker or dull 

 brownish rufous, the edges and inner surface of the ears conspicuously 

 whitish. Below the coloration is similar to that of the adults, as is, 

 in fact, the general pattern of coloration, including the dusky chin and 

 dusky plumbeous axillary patches. The extreme tip of the tail is also 

 blackish. 



