16 ZOOLOGY OF THE VOYAGE OF THE BEAGLE. 



that of Copiapo, where there is no fresh water, and where, with the exception of 

 some small rodents, (the constant inhabitants of sterile regions) scarcely any 

 other animal could exist. I saw also very many of these foxes wandering about 

 by day (although Azara says they are nocturnal in Paraguay) on the plains of 

 Santa Cruz, where various kinds of mice are abundant, and likewise around the 

 Sierra Ventana. In the course of one day's ride in this latter neighbourhood, (not 

 far from Bahia Blanca, lat. 39° S.) I should think I saw between thirty and forty. 

 They generally were wandering at no great distance from their burrows ; but, as 

 they are not very swift animals, our dogs caught two. Azara states that in Para- 

 guay this fox, which he calls the Agoura-chay, inhabits thick woods, and that it 

 makes a great nest or pile of straw, to lie on ; but that near Buenos Ayres it uses 

 the holes of the Bizcacha. Further southward, where the Bizcacha is not found, it 

 certainly excavates its own burrow.* In Chile these foxes are very destructive 

 to the vineyards, from the quantity of grapes they consume ; so that boys 

 are generally kept in the vintage season with bells and other means to frighten 

 them away. Azara states, that in Paraguay they likewise eat fruit and sugar- 

 cane. By the same authority it is said, that the Agoura-chay, when taken 

 young, is easily domesticated." — D. 



* 



1. Felis Yagouaroundi 



Plate YIII. 



Felis Yagouaroundi, Desmarest, Mammologie, p. 230. 



Yagouaroundi, Azara, Essais sur l'histoire Naturelle des Quadrupedes de la Province du Paraguay, 



torn. i. p. 171. 



Felis Darwinii, Martin, Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London, 1837, p. 3. 



F. vellere brevi, adpresso, purpurascenti-fusco ; pilis flavescente annulatis ; pedibus 



nigro lavatis ; caudd longissimd ; auribus parvulis. 



Description. — The fur is rather harsh, short, and somewhat adpressed: the 

 under fur is of a pale grayish brown colour ; the hairs which constitute the 

 chief clothing of the animal, are black, annulated with brownish yellow, or 

 in some parts, yellow-white, each hair having about three or four rings. The 

 black and pale colours are about equal in proportion, and their mixture pro- 



* Considering the great difference of climate and other conditions between the hot and wooded country of 

 Paraguay, and the desolate plains of Patagonia, one is led to suspect that the Canis Azarw of La Plata and 

 Patagonia, which wanders about by day, and inhabits burrows instead of heaps of straw, may turn out to be a 

 different species from the Agouara-chay of Azara, which is nocturnal in its habits, and lives in thick coverts. 



