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Show 102 DR. ST. G. MIVART O N [Mar. 18, to suppose that he can be mistaken as to obvious facts concerning many individuals which have, doubtless, passed through his hands. But a keen appreciation of facts does not guarantee a sound drawing of inferences. I cannot persuade myself that he has not been too apt to draw hasty inferences from insufficient data. Thus in 1856 (Fauna Brasil. p. 24) he separated C. cancrivorus and C. vetulus generically from C. azarce and C. griseus on the ground that in the first two the sagittal ridge is present though weak, and that it is absent in the last two ; that the upper fourth premolar is a little shorter than the two upper molars in the former pair of species and much shorter in the latter, and, finally, that the pupil becomes elliptical in the one pair and remains round in the other. I have, however, found the sagittal ridge to be very differently developed in different adult skulls of undoubtedly the same species. As to whether the fourth premolar is much shorter or only a little shorter than the two molars behind it, I consider that a very useful specific character but not a valid generic one-at least in the Canidce. I regard the contraction of the pupil as a most unsatisfactory distinction *. Twenty years later Dr. Burmeister seems to have come more distinctly to recognize the variability of these Dogs. He says of the South-American forms (Archiv f. Naturgesch. 1876, p. 117) that " In der Farburg sind nicht bloss alle diese Arten einander sehr ahnlich sondern sie variiren auch etwas nach der Jahreszeit." He also speaks, on the same page, of variation in the skull. Without any disrespect, then, to Dr. Burmeister, we must not deny ourselves the right to criticise freely his various representations. With respect to the form he describes and figures as C. griseus, he tells us that it is slenderer than C. azarce. N o w by C. azarce he always intends that form which was described as C. azarce by Mr. Waterhouse. But Dr. Burmeister seems more than once to have changed his mind as to the identity of his and Mr. Waterhouse's C. azarce with the C. azarce of Wied. Thus in his ' Uebersicht Thiere Brasiliens,' 1854, p. 99, he says of the form he describes as the C. azarce of Waterhouse: " Ich babe auch den Canis azarce, Pr. Max. wieder zu dieser Art gezogen; " while in his ' Fauna Brasiliens ' (1856, p. 37) he identifies the Prince's C. azarce with the C. vetulus of Lund. In his 'Reise durch La Plata,' 1861, p. 405, and in his description of the Argentine State, vol. iii. p. 147, he leaves out all reference to Lund's C. vetulus amongst the synonyms he there gives of his C. azarce. H e distinguishes his own (and Waterhouse's) C. azarce from his new species C. griseus as follows (Fauna Brasil. p. 24) :- C. azarce. C. griseus. "Fore limbs grey to the carpus; "Fore limbs entirely reddish soles blackish brown." yellow ; soles reddish brown.' He further tells us (p. 48), as we have said, that C.griseus is 1 For reasons before stated by me, see P.Z. S. 1882, p. 141. |
