382 BIR. R. I. POCOCK ON 



29. The Affinities of the Antarctic Wolf (Canis antarcticus). 

 By R. I. PococK, F.R.S., F.L.S., F.Z.S., Curator of 

 Mammals. 



[Received and Eead April 8, 1913.1 



(Text-figures 70-74.) 



Index. p,,^^ 



1. Published views on the affinities of C «mtorci^cMS 383 



2. Skull characters of C. antarcticus and G. latrans 384i 



3. External characters of C. antarcticus and C. latrans 391 



The story of Canis antarcticus has been told by Darwin *, by 

 Hamilton Smith t, and more recently by Mr. Rupert Yallentin + 

 from first-hand information, and by several authors indebted 

 either to Darwin's or Hamilton Smith's account, or to tlie 

 accounts of travellers who visited the Falklands before Darwin's 

 time. References to the literature down to 1890 may be found 

 in Mivart's ' Monograph of the Canidse,' published in that 

 year. According to Mr. Vallentin, Canis antarcticus became 

 extinct in 1876, without leaving a trace of its former existence 

 in the Falkland Islands ; and since all the known material of the 

 species appears to be preserved in London and Paris, I have 

 attempted to supply the want expressed by Allen § by figuring a 

 skull of one of the specimens in the British Museum. I have 

 not, however, given detailed measurements of the skull, because 

 these may be found in Mivart's monograph and in the paper by 

 Huxley mentioned below. 



Some six or seven years ago, when trying to identify some 

 South American dogs exhibited in the Zoological Gardens, I took 

 the incidental opportunity of looking at the skulls of a few of 

 the species of Neotropical Canidfe contained in the British 

 Museum, to learn, if jjossible, something of their affinities to 

 one another and to the better known species inhabiting Noi"th 

 America and the countries of the Old World. Amongst the 

 species examined were(7a7n's antarcticus, the so-called Wolf of 

 the Falkland Islands, and Canis latrans, the Coyote or Pi'airie 

 Wolf, which ranges roughly from Canada to Mexico. The 

 examination was made without any intention on my part of 

 adding to the literature of the subject, with which I was only 

 acquainted in a very general way ; and after satisfying myself 

 that C. antarcticus was related to certain Neotropical forms, 

 of which C. thous (= cancrivorus^ may be taken as an example, 

 and that the affinities of C. latrans lie with some of the so-called 

 jackals and wolves of the Old World, I was contented to let the 

 matter rest. 



* In Waterhonse's Zool. of H.M.S. ' Beagle,' Mammalia, p. 7, 1839. 



f In Jardine's Nat. Libr., Mammalia, ix. p. 252. 



X Manchester Memoirs, xlviii. p. 45, 1904. This paper is quoted by 

 Mr. Lydekker, and some of the interesting: and puzzling points connected with 

 C. antarcticus are discussed in ' Tlie Field,' Oct. 1, 1904. 



§ Rep. Princeton Univ. Exped. Patagonia, iii. pt. 1, p. 153, 1905. 



