HISTORY OF MEXICO, 



59 



grofs, and tail long. The grcatefl: fingularity about this 

 animal is its being totally deftitute of hair, except upon 

 its fnout, where it has fome thick crooked briftles. Its 

 whole body is covered with a fmooth, foft, afli-coloured 

 ikin, but fpotted in part with black and tawny. Thefe 

 three fpecies are almoft totally extin6i:5 or at lead very 

 few of them remain (j^). 



The OcotochtU appears agreeable to the defcription 

 given of it by Hernandez, to belong to the clafs of wild 

 cats; but the author adds fome circumftances to it which 

 have much the air of a fable ; not that he has been de- 

 firous of deceiving, but that he has trufted too much to 

 the informations of others (r). 



The Cojopollin is a quadruped of the fize of a common 

 moufe; but the tail is grolTer which it ufes as a hand. 

 Its fnout and ears are fimilar to thofe of a pig : its ears 

 are tranfparent, its legs and feet are white, audits belly 

 is of a whitifli yellow. It lives and brings up its young 

 in trees. When its young fear any thing, they cling 

 clofely to their mother. 



. The Tozan^ or Tuza, is a quadruped of the bignefs of 

 an European mole, but very different otherwife. Its 



body 



(q) Giovanni Fabri, a LIncean academician, publiflied at Rome a long and 

 learned differtation, in which he endeavoured to prove, that the xoloitzcuintli is 

 the fame with the wolf of Mexico ; having without doubt been deceived by the 

 original drawing of the xoloitzcuintli which was fent to Ronic with other pic- 

 tures of Hernandez ; but if he had read the defcription which this eminent na- 

 turalift gives of that animal in the book of the Quadrupeds of New Spain, he 

 would have fpared himfelf the labour of writing that Differtation and the ex.- 

 penfes of publiftiing it. 



(r) Dr. Hernandez fays, that when the Ocotochtli makes any prey it covers 

 it with leaves, and mounting after on fome neighbouring tree, it begins howling 

 to invite other animals to eat its prey ; and itfelf is always the laft to eat . becaufe 

 the poifon of its tongue is fo ftrong, that if it eat firft the prey would be infedl- 

 cd, and other animals who eat of it would die. This fable is ftill in the mouths 

 of the vulgar. 



