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proofs of the wide difference between the Canis jubatus and Dogs 

 (the most striking part of which difference, however, he has omitted 

 to characterize, viz. the long mane), but here my coincidence in 

 opinion ceases, for it is evident that the animal of which the skin 

 lies upon the table has not the slightest approximation to the cha- 

 racter of a Fox, which Azara would make it. A question is thus 

 opened, to what genus or subgenus of the second division of digiti- 

 grada does the animal belong ? Unfortunately the skins in my pos- 

 session do not afford the means of fixing definitively its place in the 

 family, there being neither skull nor teeth, no toes, and no means 

 of determining whether or not an anal pouch existed. Azara's 

 dental characters are ajiplicable to the genus Canis, but he has 

 omitted to notice those minute points which might constitute sub- 

 generic differences. One fact mentioned, that the canines of the 

 only adult he examined were ten lines long, although they were 

 very much worn, would apply rather to Hyana than to Canis. 

 The number of toes is omitted. Buffon calls the Canis jubatus the 

 Red Wolf; but, were not its solitary and nocturnal habits and its 

 predilection for certain fruits and vegetables sufficient to separate it, 

 the remarkable mane at once prevents the alliance. Apparently, 

 therefore, being neither fox, dog, nor wolf, it may be permitted us to 

 look to a neighbouring genus, to see whether or not there are more 

 characteristics common to the animal under consideration and species 

 of that genus than we have yet met with. 



" While residing with my family at Cadiz during the spring, three 

 beautiful skins were imported from Buenos Ayres ; they were quite 

 unknown to the owner and his friends, and learning that I took an 

 interest in natural history, I was asked to examine and give my opi- 

 nion upon them. The heavy head, the large ears, the bulky body and 

 comparatively slender hind-limbs, the short neck, the shaggy hair, 

 but particularly the singular mane, fixed my attention ; and in the 

 absence of primary generic characters, I would have pronounced the 

 skins to be those of a beautiful species of Hyana : but the few natu- 

 ralists who have examined the New World have not yet discovered 

 the Hyrena, and it would have been rash, with the slender data before 

 me, to have expressed a definitive opinion. Nevertheless on returning 

 to England and deliberately examining Azara's description of the 

 form and habits of the Canis jubatus, my original opinion is so much 

 strengthened that I am induced to submit the whole question to the 

 consideration of naturalists, in the hope that on an opportunity occur- 

 ring it may be taken advantage of to determine the primary generic 

 characters, with a view to the allocation of the animal into its exact 

 place in the digitigrade family. But to me it is a matter of indiffer- 

 ence whether or not the animal has the technical characters of Canis 

 or Hytena. Nature, in her wondrous chain of animated beings di- 

 spersed over the world, is never defective in a link (at least on the 

 great continents), for if the identical species of one continent be 

 wanting, in another we surely find its analogue. The Ostrich of 

 Africa has its analogue in America in the Rhea, and in the Emu and 

 Cassowary of Australia : the Llama replaces the Camel, and the Fe- 



