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Show CHAP. I. 30 DOGS. bas closely attended to this subject, allows a difference of four days in the gestation of the dog. The Rev. vV. D. Fox has given me three carefully recorded cases of retrievers, iri \Vhich the bitch was put only once to the dog; and not counting this day, but counting that of parturition, tho periods were fifty-nine, sixty-two, and sixty-seven days. The average period is sixty-three days; but Bollingeri states that this holds good only with large clogs ; and that for small races it is from sixty to sixty-three days; Mr. Eyton of Eyton, who has had much experience with dogs, also informs me that the time is apt to be louger with large than with small clogs. F. Cuvier has objected that the jackal would not have been domesticated on account of its offensive smell; but savages are not sensitive in this respect. rrhe degree of odour, also, differs in the different kinds of jackal ; 42 and Colonel H. Smith makes a sectional division of the group with one character dependent on not being offensive. On the other hand, dogs-for instance, rough and smooth terriers-differ much in this ref;lpect; and M. Godron states that the hairless so-called Turkish dog is more odoriferous than other clogs. Isidore Geoffroy 43 gave to a clog the same odour as that from a jackal by feeding it on raw fi~h. . The belief that our dogs are descended from wolves, jackaJs, South American Canidre, and other species, suggests a far more important difficulty. Thest~ animals in their undomesticated state, judging from a widely-spread analogy, would have been in some degree sterile if intercrossecl; and such sterility will be admitted as almost ''certain by all those who believe that the lessened fertility of crossed forms is an infallible criterion of specific distinctness. Anyhow these animals keep distinct in the countries which they inhaoit in common. On the other hand, all domestic dogs, which are here supposed to be descended 8) two months and a few dnys, which agrees with ihe clog. lsi d. G. St. Hilnirc, who bas di cussed the whole subject, and from whom I quote Bellingcri, states (' Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. iii. p. 1 12) that in the Jardin des Plantcs the period of the jackal bas been found to be from sixty to sixty·thrcc days, exactly as with the dog. 42 See Isid. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. iii. p. 112, on the odour of jackals. Col. Ham. Smith, in' Nat. Hist. Lib.,' vol. x. p. 289. 43 Quoted by Quatrcfnges in ' Bull. Soc. d'Acclimat.,' :M:ny 11th, 1863. CHAP. I. TIIEIR PARENTAGE . 31 from several distinct specie :f: • fertile together. But ass, a~e, as ar as IS known, mutually fertility of . ' Broca has well remarked H the successive generations of l ' been scrutinised with that . hi h ~ongre dogs has never when species are crossed ~~e ;v cf: Is tho~ght indispensable sion that the sexual feelin e ew acts le~dmg to the concluthe several races of th Js an~ reproductive powers differ in mere size as renderinO'e r~ga w :n cr?ssed are (passing over Mexican Alco ~5 a ~ P P ?a~IOn difficult) as follows: the this perhaps is p;me;~1yl dislikes dogs of other kinds, but endemic do()' of pno s net y a sexual feeling; the hairless W.i th the Euor opea ara.C Yuay acco d' t R o 'h r mg o engger, mixes less Spi•t z-clog in Ger·cm n race. s t 'adn th ese d o w·i t h each other. the ~ymsm t · ' than do other breeds. d D oHrecmve the fox more readily D m. go in England at't . ant c1 rh odO'k' t t h o m s a es t at a female latter statements can Ibac te t e male wild foxes. If these . · e rusted, they sexual difference in the b. 1 f 1 prove some degree of h Ieecs ·o t 1e dog B t h t at our domestic do()'~ d' .[!(.' • • • • u t e fact remains t o:s, Iuenng so widel th d . ernal structure are ~a. ~ . Y as ey o m ex- ' c 1: I more lertile t th reason to believe their d . oge er than we have P ll suppose Wild pare t ld a as assumes 46 that l n s wou have been h a ong course of d t· · · t at sterility which th . . omes !Cation eliminates e parent-speCies w ld h only lately captured. no eli t' t ~ ou ave exhibited if th . h ' s me 1acts are rec d d · Is ypothesis '· but th e evi' de nce see t or e m support of pendently of the evidence d .· d mfs o me so strong (inde- am.m al s) m. favour of . d en.v e rom oth er d omestw. atod . OUI omeStlC dOD'S h . d several Wild stocks, that I am led o a:mg escended from hypothesis. to admit tho truth of this There is another and close! alii d . the doctrine of the descent fy de drff~culty consequent on '~I' ld . o our omeshc d f . specws, namely, that the do ogs rom several fertile with their supposed y not seem to be perfectly t b parents. But th . no een quite fairly tried. tl H . e experiment has ' 1e ungarian dog, for instance 44 •J ' . . ournal de la Physioloaie ' to n. p. 385. o , m. ltoa nDdrs ,'H 1 801 '.b ·,I·. s. 6 38. WJ. th respect 45 See :M:r R Hill' of this breed i G ,s excellent account Rcnao- , ' n ossa s 'Jamaica,' p. 338; s. I5ser sW~aeugetbierc von Paraguay ' . Itb respect to S itz d ' see Bechstoin's 'Na t urgesch. p Deutsocghs-, B ··t A. odgkin s statement made before n . ssoc., see ' The z 1 . , . for 1845-46, p. 1097 oo agist, vol, IV., 46 ' Acta Acad. . St. p 1780 etcrsbur!!h,' ' part ii. pp. 84, 100. ~ |