HISTORY OP MEXICO. 



197 



American animals, as he is about thofe which are Euro- 

 pean. We feel extreme regret that a philofopher fo 

 celebrated, fo ingenious, fo learned, and fo eloquent, 

 who has endeavoured to write of all the quadrupeds of 

 the world, diftinguifties their fpecies, families, and 

 breeds, defcribes their character, difpolltion, and man- 

 ners, numbers their teeth, and even meafures their tails^ 

 fliould at the fame time {hew himfelf ignorant of the 

 moft common animals of Mexico. What quadruped is 

 more common or more known in Mexico than the coyote F 

 All the hiftorians of that kingdom make mention of it, 

 and Hernandez gives an exact and minute defcription of 

 it in his Hiftory ; which is moft frequently cited by Buf- 

 fon ; yet this author makes not the lead mention of it 

 under that or any other name (e). Who does not know 

 that the rabbit was a quadruped excelfively common in 

 the provinces of the Mexican empire, under the name of 

 Tochtli P That the figure of it was one of the four 

 characters of the Mexican years, and that the hair 

 of its belly was woven into waiftcoats for the ufe of the 

 nobles in winter ? Notwithstanding Mr. BufFon will 

 make the rabbit one of thofe quadrupeds which were 

 tranfported from Europe to America ; but, among all 

 the European hiftorians of Mexico, we have not found 

 one who thinks fo ; on the contrary, all fuppofe, that it 

 has from time immemorial inhabited thofe countries, and 

 we do not doubt that the Mexicans, as often as they read 

 this fmgular anecdote, mint fmile at the count de BufFon. 



Hernandez 



(<r) The animals of the old continent, which moft refemble the Cojote, are 

 the Chacaly the Adive, and the Ifath ; but it is different from them. The Cba* 

 cal is of the fize of a fox, the Cojote is twice as large. The Chacals go always 

 in herds of thirty or forty together ; the Cojotes, in general, alone. The Adive 

 is ftill fmaller and weaker than the Ghacal. The lfatis is peculiar to the frigid 

 zone, and fhuns the woods ; but the Cojote loves the woods, and inhabits 

 warm and temperate countries. 



