[7]. Azara has not described this animal, which circumstance alone would render it probable that it is not an inhabitant of Paraguay or La Plata. The two Foxes mentioned by him are the Aguará-guaza, (Canis jubatus, Auct.) a very large kind of fox (a strangely exaggerated description of this animal is given by Falkner) of which I could not obtain a specimen; and the Aguará-chay, or Canis Azaræ.
[8]. Molina, Compendio de la Historia del Reyno de Chile, vol. i. p. 330 and 332.
[9]. I am indebted to Mr. Ogilby, who visited the Prince’s collection, for a description from the specimens of C. Azaræ therein preserved. In this description the tip of the tail is said to be black.
[10]. 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 Azaræ 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 Agouará-chay of Azara, which is nocturnal in its habits, and lives in thick coverts.
[11]. In measuring the species of Mammalia, I almost invariably, when wishing to give the length, measure from the tip of the nose along the curve of the back to the root of the tail. In the Ruminantia of course this plan is not desirable, but in other Mammals I have found it most convenient. If we take a Cat, for instance, and curve the body in whatever way we please, we find the length (taken in the way just mentioned) always the same. Whereas, if we take a straight line (as many naturalists do) the length will vary according to the position of the animal.
[12]. I must refer the reader to my journal for some account of the habits of the jaguar and puma, which being well known animals, and the facts that I mention having little scientific interest, I have not thought it worth while to repeat them here.
[13]. D’Orbigny says, (vol. ii. p. 69,) that all the species of the genus have this habit.
[14]. Figures 47 and 48 of M. Cuvier’s work represent horns so unlike either of those brought over by Mr. Darwin, that I cannot help suspecting they belong to some other species of stag.
[15]. The MS. name of M. decumanoïdes, which I had applied to this animal, has been changed, in consequence of my having seen a different species, with the same name attached, in the museum of the India House.
[16]. The great Bandicoot rat of India, (Mus giganteus, of Hardwicke,) ought, perhaps, to be added to the species above enumerated; and I strongly suspect several catalogued species will prove but varieties of this animal.