250 FALKLAND ISLANDS. March, 1834, 



have no doubt it is a pecuhar species, and confined to this archi- 

 pelago ; because many sealers, Gauchos, and Indians, who 

 have visited these islands, all maintain that no such animal is 

 found in any part of South America. Molina, from a simi- 

 larity in habits, thought this was the same with his "cul- 

 peu;"* but I have seen both, and they are quite distinct. 

 These wolves are well known, from Byron's account of their 

 tameness and curiosity; which the sailors, who ran into the 

 water to avoid them, mistook for fierceness. To this day 

 their manners remain the same. They have been observed 

 to enter a tent, and actually pull some meat from beneath the 

 head of a sleeping seaman. The Gauchos, also, have fre- 

 quently killed them in the evening, by holding out a piece of 

 meat in one hand, and in the other a knife ready to stick them. 

 As far as I am aware, there is no other instance in any part 

 of the world, of so small a mass of broken land, distant from 

 a continent, possessing so large a quadruped peculiar to itself. 

 Their numbers have rapidly decreased ; they are already ba- 

 nished from that half of the island which lies to the eastward 

 of the neck of land between St. Salvador Bay and Berkeley 

 Sound. Within a very few years after these islands shall have 

 become regularly settled, in aU probability this fox will be 

 classed with the dodo, as an animal which has perished from 

 the face of the earth. Mr. Lowe, an inteUigent person who 

 has long been acquainted with these islands, assured me, 

 that all the foxes from the western island were smaller and of 

 a redder colour than those from the eastern. In the four 

 specimens which were brought to England in the Beaglef 

 there was some variation, but the diff'erence with respect to 



mon European rat and mouse have roamed from the habitations, and have 

 settled themselves at various points. The common hog has also run 

 wild. 



* The " culpeu" is the Vulpes Magellanicus brought home by Captain 

 King from the Strait of Magellan. It is common in Chile. 



■\- Captain FitzRoy has presented two of these foxes to the British 

 Museum, where Mr. Gray had the kindness to compare them in my 

 presence. 



