APPENDIX. 131. 



the drawing of him, and fpeaks of a painter found at Al- 

 giers as readily as if he had been at the gates of Rome or 

 Naples. Thefe are the wretched fubterfuges of low minds, 

 as diftant from feience as they are from honour and vir- 

 tue. "Why, if the animal was equally known to Mr Bran- 

 der and me, did he not, when writing upon it, give his 

 name, his manners, the ufes to which he was deftined, and 

 the places where he refided ? why fend to Algiers for an 

 account of him, after having him fo long in his poiTeffion, 

 fince at Algiers he was probably as great a ftranger as he 

 was at Stockholm ? why call him a fox, or pronounce his 

 genus, yet write to Algiers for particulars to decide what 

 that .genus was.? 



The Count of BufTon *, content with the merit of his own 

 works, without feeking praife from fcraps of information 

 picked up at random from the reports of others, declares 

 candidly, that he believes this animal to be as yetanonyme, 

 that is, not to have a name, and in this, as in other refpects, 

 to be perfectly unknown. If thofe that have written con- 

 cerning it had ftopt here likewife, perhaps the lofs the pub- 

 lic would have fuffered by wanting their obfervations would 

 not have been accounted a great detriment to natural hif- 

 tory. 



Mr Pennant f» from Mr Brander's calling it a fox, 

 has taken occafion to declare that his genus is a dog. Mr 

 Sparman, that he may contribute his mite, attacks the de- 

 scription which I gave of this animal in a converfation with 

 Vol. V. T the 



,# Supplement to Tom. iii. p. 148. f Vol. I. p. Z48. 



