HISTORY OF MEXICO. 



205 



by feveral European authors who have feen thefe ani- 

 mals ; and even by count de Buffon himfelf, in other 

 places of his Hiftory. Dr. Hernandez fays of tkemeztfi, 

 or American lion, that it is larger than the lion of the 

 fame fpecies of the old continent. Of the tyger he af- 

 firms the fame (p ). Neither the count de Buffon, nor 

 Mr. de Paw have a juft idea of this wild animal. We 

 faw one a few hours after it was killed by nine (hots : but 

 it was much larger in fize than we are made to believe by 

 Mr. Buffon. Thofe authors, fince they do not truft the 

 accounts of Spaniards, ought at lead: to give credit to 

 Mr. Condamine, the learned and impartial French au- 

 thor, who fays that the tygers feen by him in the hot 

 countries of the new world did not appear to him to dif- 

 fer from the African tygers, either in the beauty of their 

 colours, or in their fize. Of the Mexican wolf Her- 

 nandez fays, that in figure, colour, and difpofition, as 

 well as in fize it refembles the Eurppean wolf, except 

 that it has a larger head (q). The fame thing he affirms 

 of the common deer, and Oviedo alfo of both the com- 

 mon and other deer. The count de Buffon, notwith- 

 ftanding the univerfality of the pofition which he has laid 

 down without any exception, concerning the fmaller fize 

 of American quadrupeds, treating, in volume xxix. of 

 the degeneracy of animals, he fays, that deer are among 

 the quadrupeds common to both continents thofe alone 

 which are more large and ftrong in the new than they 

 are in the old world ; and fpeaking, in volume xvii. of the 

 lodra of Canada, he confeffes that they are larger than 



thofe 



(f) Vulgaris eft huic orbi tygris, fed noftrate major. Hift. Quad. N. Hifp. 

 cap. x. 



(y) Forma, colore, moribus, ac mole corporis Lupo Noftrati fimilis eft Cuet~ 

 achtli, atque adeo ejus, ut mihi videtur, fpeciei, fed ampliore capiti. Ibid. cap. 

 xxxiii. 



