allf.n: noes of thk amkkkax ah()hi(;i\ks. 4,S:i 



vulsiiribus similis. Atque haec de canihus Xouac Hispaniac l)rcuitt>r 

 dicta sunto." Translated freely, "The second is Iik(> the Maltese 

 dofjs, in color varied with white, black, and fulvous, but it is hump- 

 backed and prized for this pleasing deformity, and a head that appears 

 to grow from the shoulders. It is called the Michuacan dog from 

 the place where it is native. The third sort of dog, howe\(T, is^'called 

 Techichi, and is like our Spaniels, but of sad countenance, though in 

 other respects like ordinary dogs. It is eaten by the Indians. This 

 then is briefly what I have to say of the dogs of Mexico." The 

 Techichi apparently was in no wise peculiar as a small dog. The 

 Michuacan animal, however, was hump-lmcked, without conspicuous 

 neck, its colors white, black, and fulvous, "varius." In their elabo- 

 ration of Hernandez's account, Recchi and Lynceus (1651, p. 466) 

 fail to distinguish between these two supposed dogs; at all events 

 their figure (Plate 3, fig. 1) and description deal altogether with the 

 hump-backed animal, of which they seem to have had some knowl- 

 edge or probably a preserved specimen. They figure a female under 

 the name 'Cmiis Mexicana' and the Mexican name Ytzcuinteporzotli, 

 tJie first half of which signifies 'dog.' Buft'on, and later Gmelin, 

 likewise failed to distinguish between Hernandez's second and third 

 sorts of dogs, and the latter author in 1788, combined the two under 

 the name Aincricanus, with a brief diagnosis based on the figure of 

 Recchi and L^^lceus, viz., "magnitudine i [/. e. of the breed mditaeiis], 

 capite parvo, auribus pendulis, dorso curvato, cauda brevi." Under 

 this name, Gmelin included: a. Ytzcuinteporzotli, or the Canis mexi- 

 cana of Recchi and Lynceus and b. Techichi of Hernandez. Obviously 

 the diagnosis applies to the hump-backed animal only, to which 

 Buffon had already applied the- native name Alco, following Recchi 

 and Lynceus. This name appears to have been of doubtful applica- 

 tion to the common dog, but was used at tunes by later ^\Tite^s to 

 indicate the small native dog of Peru and Mexico. Kerr (1792, p. 136) 

 endeavors to improve on Gmelin by distinguishing with Latin names 

 the two varieties of the hitter's Canis americanus. He first trans- 

 scribes the description and then distinguishes: "a. Fat Alco. — 

 Canis americanus obesm" and "b. Techichi.— Ca/t/^ americanus 

 plancus," Tvdth descriptive accounts from Hernandez and his elobora- 

 tors, corresponding to Gmeiin's " a " and " b." 



What then was this Alco? A study of Recchi and Lynceus's 

 figure (Plate 3, fig. 1) and description seem to indicate clearly that they 

 had in mind a Raccoon. They describe its nose, forehead, and eye- 

 brows as white, these markings evidently delimiting the dark face. 



