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 Yentana. 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 VIII. 
Felis Yagouaroundi, Desmarest, Mammologie, p. 230. 
Yagouaroundi, Azara, Essais sur l’histoire Naturelle des Quadrupedes de la Province du Paraguay, 
tom. 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 ; cauda longissima ; 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 Azarce 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. 
