smaller and less bushy than in the former animals. The contour of the head
is wolf-like ; the legs, however, are shorter than in the true wolves ; and the
tail is white at the apex, a character common in the foxes.
The fur of the Antarctic Fox is moderately long, and the under fur is not
very abundant, especially as compared with that of the C. magellanicus. This
under fur is of a pale brown colour; the apical portion of each hair is yellowish
; the longer hairs are black at the apex, brown at the base, and annnlated
with white towards the apex. In many of these hairs the subapical pale ring
is wanting. On the chest and belly the hairs are of a pale dirty yellow
colour, gray-white at the base, and black at the apex. On the hinder part
of the belly the hairs are almost of an uniform dirty white. The space around
the angle of the mouth, the upper lip, and the whole of the throat, are white.
The chin is brown-white, or brownish. The basal half of the tail is of the
same colour as the body, and the hairs are of the same texture; on the apical
half of the tail they are of a harsher or less woolly nature, of a black colour
at the apex, and brownish at the base ; those at the extreme point are totally
white. The legs are almost of an uniform fulvous colour; the feet are of a
somewhat paler hue ; the hairs on the under side of the hinder feet are
brownish, and the external and posterior parts of the tibise are suffused with
the same tint. The hairs on the head are grizzled with black and fulvous ;
the former of these colours is somewhat conspicuous, excepting in the region
of the eyes, where the fulvous or yellowish tint prevails. Tlie muzzle is
scarcely of so dark a hue as the crown of the head. The ears are furnished
internally with long white hairs, externally the hairs are yellowish, with their
apices black; the latter colour is more conspicuous towards the tip of the ear.
The sides of the neck near the ear are of a rich fulvous hue.
from nose to root of tail
from tip of nose to ear
of tail (hair included)
36 0
7 3
13 0
Length of ear .
H eight of body at shoulders
2 i)
15 0
Habitat, Falkland Islands.
“Three specimens of this animal were brought to England by Capt. FitzRoy ;
from one of which, the above drawing and description has been made. The
earliest notice I can find of this animal is by Pernety,* during Bougainville’s voyage,
which was undertaken in 1764, for the purpose of colonizing these islands.
The strange familiarity of its manner seems to have excited the fears of some of
^ Journal Historique d’un Voyage fait aux lies Malouines, tom. ii. p. 459.
the seamen in Commodore Byron's voyage (in 176S) in rather a ludicrous manner.
Byron says that seals were not the only dangerous animals that they found, “ for
the master having been sent out one day to sound the coast upon the south shore,
reported at his return that four creatures of great fierceness, resembling wolves,
ran up to their bellies in the water to attack the people in his boat, and that as
they happened to have no fire-arms with them, they had immediately put the boat
off in deep water.” Byron adds tliat, “ When any of these creatures got sight of
our people, though at ever so great a distance, they ran directly at them ; and no
less than five of them were killed this day. They were always called wolves by
the ship’s company, but, except in their size, and the shape of the tail, I think
they bore a greater resemblance to a fox. They are as big as a middle-sized mastiff,
and their fangs are remarkably long and sharp. There are great numbers of
them upon this coast, though it is not perhaps easy to guess how they first came
hither; for these islands are at least one hundred leagues distant from the main.
They burrow in the ground like a fox, and we have frequently seen pieces of seals
which they have mangled, and tlie skins of penguins lie scattered about the
mouths of tlieir holes. To get rid of these creatures, our people set fire to the
grass, so that the country was in a blaze as far as the eye could reach, for
several days, and we could see them running in great numbers to seek other
quarters.”
The habits of these animals remain nearly the same to the present day, although
their numbers have been greatly decreased by the singular facility with which they
are destroyed. I was assured by several of the Spanish countrymen, who are employed
in hunting the cattle whicli have run wild on these islands, that they have
repeatedly killed them by means of a knife held in one hand, and a piece of meat
to tempt them to approach, in the other. They range over the whole island, but
perhaps are most numerous near the coast; in the inland parts they must subsist
almost exclusively on the upland geese, (Anser leiicopterus,) which, from fear of
them, like the eider-ducks of Iceland, build only on the small outlying islets.
These wolves do not go in packs ; they wander about by day, but more commonly
in the evening ; tliey burrow holes; are generally very silent, excepting during the
breeding season, when they utter cries, which were described to me as resembling
those of the Canis A zara. Spaniards and half-cast Indians, from several districts
of the southern portions of South America, have visited these islands, and they all
declare tliat the wolf is not found on the mainland ; the sealers likewise say it does
not occur on Georgia, Sandwich Land, or the other islands in the Antarctic ocean.
I entertain, therefore, no doubt, that tlie Canis antarcticus is peculiar to this
archipelago. It is found both on East and West Falkland, as might have been
inferred from the accounts given by Bougainville and Byron, wlio visited different
islands ;—I state this particularly, because the contrary has been asserted. I was