allkn: dogs ov iiik amkhuan ah<)KI(;i.\ks. 4(S.") 



Raccoon. In vicav. however, of the inicertainty as to which form of 

 Raccoon it should indicate, there seems to l)e no virtue in makinj; 

 such a change at present. 



Later writers have tried to tli.scoxer living examph's of the original 

 Alco with small success. Hamilton Smith (1840, j). l.i"), pi. 4, left- 

 hand fig.) describes as Can is <iIro, what he supposed to r(;present this 

 Itreetl, from a stutt'ed specimen in an exhibition of Mexican curiosities 

 made by W. Bullock, and said then to be in the P^gyptian Hall (British 

 Museum). He says of it: "That enterprising traveller described it 

 as of the wild race; yet, from its appearance, we at first considered it 

 to be a Newfotmdland puppy." The figure shows a snuill black and 

 white dog with rather full-haired tail, clumsy build, and ears laid 

 back. Of the mounted specimen, Hamilton Smith further writes: — 

 " It was small, with rather a large head ; elongated occiput ; full muzzle; 

 pendulous ears; having long soft hair on the body. In colour, it was 

 entirely white, excepting a large black spot co\ering each ear, and 

 part of the forehead and cheek, with a fulvous mark above each eye, 

 and another black spot on the rump; the tail was rather long, well 

 fringed, and white." This description, except for the penflulous ears 

 might apply well enough to the type of .small dog here treated. How 

 much of its appearance was due to the taxidermist's efforts is, how- 

 ever, to be considered. It is even possible that it was after all only a 

 spaniel, which, except for its short ears, it seems to resemble. 



What seems to have been a slightly deformed Indian Dog, is de- 

 scribed and figured by Duges (1882) as a Chihuahua Dog (a term that 

 is used by fanciers for a dwarf breed, with erect ears). From his 

 figure of the skull, it is evident that the animal was young. It was 

 apparently rather small, had but three lower premolars (the first 

 lacking), a rather heavy head, and long close-haired tail. The back 

 seems to have been unduly arched but the head is represented as 

 erect, and the posture quite different from that of a raccoon. The 

 color was blotched black and wliite. The ears were cropped, but 

 were assumed to h&ve been erect. So far as can be judged from 

 Duges's account, this may have been a dog similar to the Techichi. 

 He, however, supposed it to represent the Alco. 



The confusion of names has been added to by Cope (1887) who 

 examined three skulls of the so called Chihuahua Dog. He found 

 a variable reduction in the number of teeth, correlated apparently 

 with the loss of hair. The premolars were reduced to f or §, while the 

 molars were §, I, and § respectively. In all, the inner cusp of the 

 lower sectorial was lacking. On account of the reduced number of 



