succeeded very well; so that they abound over large parts of the
island. Yet, like the horses, they are confined within certain limits;
for they have not crossed the central chain of hills, nor would they
have extended even so far as its base, if, as the Gauchos informed me,
small colonies has not been carried there. I should not have supposed
that these animals, natives of northern Africa, could have existed in a
climate so humid as this, and which enjoys so little sunshine that even
wheat ripens only occasionally. It is asserted that in Sweden, which
any one would have thought a more favourable climate, the rabbit cannot
live out of doors. The first few pairs, moreover, had here to content
against pre-existing enemies, in the fox and some large hawks. The
French naturalists have considered the black variety a distinct
species, and called it Lepus Magellanicus. [5] They imagined that
Magellan, when talking of an animal under the name of "conejos" in the
Strait of Magellan, referred to this species; but he was alluding to a
small cavy, which to this day is thus called by the Spaniards. The
Gauchos laughed at the idea of the black kind being different from the
grey, and they said that at all events it had not extended its range
any further than the grey kind; that the two were never found separate;
and that they readily bred together, and produced piebald offspring. Of
the latter I now possess a specimen, and it is marked about the head
differently from the French specific description. This circumstance
shows how cautious naturalists should be in making species; for even
Cuvier, on looking at the skull of one of these rabbits, thought it was
probably distinct!
The only quadruped native to the island [6]; is a large wolf-like fox
(Canis antarcticus), which is common to both East and West Falkland. I
have no doubt it is a peculiar species, and confined to this
archipelago; because many sealers, Gauchos, and Indians, who have
visited these islands, all maintain that no such animal is found in any
part of South America.
Molina, from a similarity in habits, thought that this was the same
with his "culpeu;" [7] but I have seen both, and they are quite
distinct. These wolves are well known from Byron's account of their
tameness and curiosity, which the sailors, who ran into the water to
avoid them, mistook for fierceness. To this day their manners remain
the same. They have been observed to enter a tent, and actually pull
some meat from beneath the head of a sleeping seaman. The Gauchos also
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