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Show 1894.] MAMMALS OF URUGUAY. 299 as a small cub and brought up at Santa Elena became perfectly tame. H e was kept on chain, and upon being visited would jump up like a dog, and also throw himself at full length on his side upon the ground to have his back and sides tickled, closing his eyes and making a whining noise. The difficulty was to get away from him, and his mode of pressing his visitor to stay was to take hold of the latter's breeches with his little sharp teeth. It has sometimes been doubted whether foxes wag their tails. This animal certainly used to wave his tail gently from side to side when he was pleased. H e would follow the peon who attended to him like a dog, and ultimately (with a companion) was brought by m e to England. AGUARA (Canis sp. inc.). AVe had also another species of Dog known to the peones as the Aguara. This animal is said by them to live in the rocky cerros and in the least frequented parts of the district, and to put in an appearance chiefly at lambing time. They also say that it is " m u y brava," and that a dog which has no difficulty in overcoming an ordinary " Zorro " always has a hard fight with, and is sometimes turned by, an " Aguara." I procured some skins, but unfortunately the only skull I got could not be brought home. The points in which this animal differs from the ordinary grey fox are these:-(i.) It has the head shorter and broader in proportion. (ii.) The ears are short and rounded instead of long and pointed. (hi.) The general colour of the body is warmer, there being a flush of reddish yellow in the fur. (iv.) The brush is shorter in proportion, (v.) There is a line of nearly black hairs beginning at the scruff of the neck and passing down the line of the backbone; this hair is thickest at the scruff of the neck and above the shoulders, and approaches in character the mane of the Canis jubatus. The blackness is continued on to the brush, (vi.) The whole animal is stronger and more robust, (vii.) The appearance of the animal and the general aspect of the head in life are (judging from a supposed hybrid between the Aguara and Zorro) very different. This is caused by the ears being farther apart and slanting outwards more than those of the Zorro. One or two of these were trapped at Santa Elena about April and May, when the Merinos were lambing, and I saw skins of others. The marks of difference are not so clear in all cases, and it is probable that interbreeding takes place (if indeed this Aguara is a distinct species). I hope to obtain a skull, and then perhaps the identity of the Aguara of Uruguay may be settled. It agrees with Dr. Burmeister's description of Canis cancrivorus, Desmarest, better than with any other I have read (Desc. Phys. p. 143). One of these intermediate specimens, a half-grown example, was trapped and brought up to the estancia alive. Its different appearance, consequent upon the width of the skull and the distance |
