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Show 20 DOGS. CHAr. I. dorv beinrv tho descendants of d1. st·i nc t WI' ld st ool-~s ' i.s thei. r .r c-o 0 semblance m• van•o us <.:ountn• es to dI' S tm' e• t spe cies shll OXIS.t mg there. It must, however, be admitted that tho companson between the W.i ld and domesti·c ate cl am·m a1 has been ma.d e but m. few cases w1. th su ffi C·IO n t oxac t ness. Before .e n.t en.n rv on o d e ta1.l s, 1't w1' ll b o we 11 t o show that there is no a pnon ch.f ficulct1y in tho belief that several canine species have bee~ domesticate . ; for there I·S much cl '1f fi cu 1t y m· tlu. 1·s r·e spect with some oth.e r domestic quadrupeds and birds. Members of the d~g family inhabit nearly the whole world; and several species agree pretty closely in habits and structure with our several domesticated clogs. Mr. Galton has shown 12 ~ow fond ~avage~ are of keeping and taming animals of all kmds. SoCial an~mals arc the most easily subjugated by man, and sovor~l speCies of Caniclre hunt in packs. It deserves notice, as bcarmg on o~her animals as well as on the clog, that at an extremely anCient period, when man first 011terecl any count:y, th.o animals liv~ng there would have felt no instinctive or mhented fear of h1m, and would consequently have been tamed far more easily than at present. For instance, when_ the Falklan~ Islands ~ere first visited by man, the large wolf-hke dog ( C~nzs ~ntarc~zc~s) fearlessly came to meet Byron's sailors, who, m1stakmg this Ignorant curiosity for ferocity, ran into the water to avoid them: even recently a man, by holding a piece of meat in one hand and a knife in the other, could sometimes stick them at night. On an island in the Sea of Aral, when first discovered by Butakoff, the saigak antelopes, which arc "generally very timid and watchful, did not fly from us, but on the contrary looked at us with a sort of curiosity." :So, again, on the shores of the Mauritius, the manatee was not at first in the least afraid of man, and thus it has been in several quarters of the world with seals and the morse. I have elsewhere shown 13 how slowly tho native birds of several islands have acquired and inherited a salutary dread of man : at the Galapagos Archipelago I pushed with the muzzle of my gun hawks from a branch, and 12 ' Domestication of Animals :' Ethnological Soc., Dec. 22nd, 18G3. 13 'Journal of Researches,' &c., 1845, p. 393. With respect to Canis ant-arcticus, see p. 1D3. For the case of the antelope, see 'Jomnnl Royal Geograph. Soc.,' vol. xxiii. p. 94. CHAP. I. TIIEIR PARENT AGE. 21 held out a pitcher of water for other birds to alight on and drink. Quadrupeds ~nd birds which have seldom been disturbed by man, dread Jum no more than do our English birds the cows or horses grazing in the fields. It is a more important consideration that several canine species evince ( ~s w~~ be shown in a future chapter) no strong repugnance or mabi11ty to breed under confinement · and the incapacity to breed under confinement is one of the c~mmonest bars to domes~ication. Lastly, savages set tho highest value, as we shall see m the chapter on Selection, on dogs : even halftamed animals arc highly useful to them : the Indians of North America cross their half-wild clogs \\'ith wolves, and thus render them oven wil~er than before, but bolder : tho savages of Guiana catch a~d partially tame and use the whelps of> two wild species of Cams, as do the savages of Australia those of the wild DinO'o. Mr. Philip ~ing informs me that he once trained a wild Din°go puppy to dnve cattle, and found it very useful. From these sev~ra.l considerations .we see that there is no difficulty in behovmg that man m1ght have domesticated various canine species in different countries. It would indeed have been a strange fact if one species alone had been domesticated throughout the world. . We will now enter into details. The accurate and sagacious ~IChardson says, "The resemblance between the Northern Amencan wolves (Canis lupus, var. occidentalis) and the domestic dogs of the Indians is so great that the size and strenoth of tho wolf seems to be tho only difference. I have more 0 than one~ mistaken a band of wolves for the dogs of a party . of Indians; and the .howl of the animals of both species is prolonged so e~actly. m the. same key that oven the practised ear of the Indian fails at times to discriminate them." He adds t~at the more northern Esquimaux dogs are not only extremely hke the grey wolves of tho Arctic circle in form and colour ?ut ~lso nearly equal them in size. Dr. Kane has often see~ m .his teams of sledge-dogs the oblique eye (a character on whiCh some natm'alists lay great stress), the drooping tail, and s~ared .look of the wolf. In disposition the E quimaux: dogs differ httle from wolves, and, according to Dr. Hayes, they are capable of no attachment to man, and are so savage, that |