MAMMALS. 155 



there are really several species confounded together. This is confirmed by serious discrepancies 

 in the descriptions made from specimens of different localities, as from Brazil, Paraguay, Chile, 

 Patagonia, and the shores of the strait of Magellan. They burrow in the ground, and do not 

 venture from their holes during the day ; and not being very fleet, are without difficulty taken 

 hy the dogs. 



According to Burmeister, the Canis 7nela7npus, of Wagner, Wiegman's Archiv, 1843, 358, is 

 only a very dark-colored variety of this rather remarkable species, from the interior plateaus of 

 Brazil. 



The Canis azarae belongs to the section Lycahpex of Burmeister^ or jackal foxes, character- 

 ized by along tail reaching to the ground, and the absence of an elevated parietal crest to the 

 ekuU. 



GALICTIS VITTATA, Bell. 



Viverra vittata, Schreber, Saiigt. Ill, 447, Tab. 124. 



Gm. Syst. Nat. I, 1788, 89. 

 Gulo vittatus, Desm. Mamm. 175, 268. 

 Eengger, Paraguay, 226. 

 Fischer, Synopsis, 1829, 155. 

 Vrsus hrasiliensis, Thunb. Mem. Acad. St. Petersb. VI, 401, Tab. 13. 

 Galictis vittata, Bell, Zool. Jour. II, 551. 

 Ib. Pr. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1837; 39. 

 Ib. Trans. Zool. Soc. Lond. II, 203, Tab. xxxv. 

 Waterhouse, Zool. Beagle, Mamm. 1838, 21. 

 Wagner, Suppl. Schreber, Saiigt. II, 1841, 215. 

 ScHiNZ, Synopsis Mamm. I, 1844, 331. 

 Gay, Hist. Chile, Zoologia, I, 1847, 51. 

 Burmeister, Thiere Brasiliens, I, 1854, 109. 

 Le Grison, Buff. XV, 65, Tab. viii. 

 El Huron menor. Azara I, 190. 



VuLG. Grison; Huron; Quiqui, (Chile); Gachorino de Mato, (Brazil.) 

 This species of Galictis has a wide extent of distribution, occurring throughout Guiana^ Bra- 

 zil, Paraguay, Chile, and Patagonia. In Chile it is not rare, and commits great destruction 

 among the eggs and poultry, having much the same habits in this respect as the weasels and 

 minks of North America. According to Wagner, the Galictis Allamandi of Bell is only a very 

 old and dark individual of the present species. 



DIDELPHYS ELEGANS, Waterhouse. 



Didelphys elegant, Waterhouse, Zoology of the Beagle, Mammalia, 1839, 95, PL xxxi. 

 Skull. PL xxxv, fig. 5. 



Ib. Naturalist's Library, IX, 106. 



Ib. Natural History of the Mammalia, I, 1846, 515, PL xvi, fig. 1. 

 Gat, Historia de Chile, Zoologia, I, 1847, 84. 

 Didd-phys hortensis, Keid, Pr. Zool. Soc. Lond. V, Jan. 1838, (not described.) 

 Thylamys elegans, Gray, List of Mammalia British Museum, 1843, 101. 

 VuLG. Comadreja, or Llaca. 

 To those familiar with the Opossum {Didelphys virginianus) of the United States, with its 

 coarse, heavy appearance and comparatively large size, the application of the same name to 



