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Show CnAr. I. 24 DOGS. b h. · does not seem which had not learned to bark ; ut t IS vww 1 f tl . h 1. f their marc 1 rom 1e probable as tho natiVes along t e me o . ' 1 t least two N. Amcncan north reclaimed, as we 1ave seen, a species of Canidm. 1 Tuming to tho Old \Vorlcl, some European dogs c~ose Y. resemble tho wolf. thus the shepherd clog of the plams of Hungary · 1 · ' . _,d. h b. wn has a sharp nose, short, IS w nte or reo. IS - ro , d b 1 t ·1 ncl so much resembles m·cct cars, shaggy coat, an us 1y aJ , a . . a wolf that Mr. Paget, who gives this clescnpt10n,. says be has known a Hungarian mistake a wolf for one of lns own do.gs. J eittelcs, also, remarks on the close similarity of the. Hunganan d og an d wo lf. Shepherd dogs in Italy must ancient. ly have closely resembled wolves, for Columella (vii. 12) adviseR that white clogs be kept, adding, "pastor album probat, ne pro lupo canem feriat." Several accounts have been given of dogs ~nd wolves crossing naturally; and Pliny asserts tha~ the Gauls t~cd their female dogs in the woods that. they m1gbt cross with wolvcs.1n The European wolf differs shghtly fro:n that of ~~rth America, and has been ranked by many naturalists as a chstmct species. The common wolf of. India is also by some esteemed as a third species, and hero agam we find a marked resemblance between the pariah dogs of certain districts of India and the Indian wol£.20 With respect to Jackals, Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire 21 says that not one constant difference can be pointed out between their structure and that of the smaller races of dogs. They agree closely in habits: jackals, when tamed and called by their 19 Paget's 'Travels in Hungary and Transylvania,' vol. i. p. 501. Jcittclcs, '1! a una Hungariro Supcrioris,' 1862, s. 13. See Pliny, 'Hist. of tbc World' (Eng. transl.), 8th book, ch. xl., n,bout the Gauls crossing their <logs. See ftlso Aristotle, 'Hist. Animal.' lib. viii. c. 28. For good cviucnco about wolves and <logs naturally crossing n ar tho Pyrenees, see M. Mauuuyt, 'Du Loup et do ses Races,' Poitiers, 1851 ; also Pallas, in 'Acta Acad. St. Pctcrsbw ·gh,' 1780, part ii. p. 94. 2o I give this on excellent authority, namely, Mr. Blyth (unuer the signature of Zoophilus), in the 'Indian Sporting Review,' Oct. 185G, p. 134. JYu:. Blyth states that he was struck with the resemblance between a brush-tailed race of pariah .. dogs, north-west of Cawnpore, and tho Indian wolf. He gives corro· borativo evidence with rcsp ct to the dogs of the valley of the Norbudda. 21 For numerous and iutorcst.ing details on the resemblance of dogs and jackals, see laid. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 'I-list. Nat. Gen.,' 1860, tom. iii. p. 101. See also 'Hist. Nat. des Mammiferes,' par Prof. Gervais, 1855, tom. ii. p. 60. \ CuAr.I. THEIR PARENTAGE. 25 master, wag their tails, crouch, and throw themselves on their backs; they smell at the tails of dogs, and void their urine sidoways.22 A number of excellent naturalists, from the time of Giildenstiiclt to that of Ehrenberg, Hemprich, and Creizschmar, have expressed themselves in the strongest terms with respect to tho resemblance of the half-domestic dogs of Asia and Egypt to jackals. M. Nordmann, for instance, says, " Les chiens d'Awhasio rossomblent etonnamment a des chacals." Ehrenberg 23 assorts that tho domestic dogs of Lower Egypt, and certain mummiecl dogs, have for their wild type a species of wolf (a. lupaster) of the country; whereas the domestic <.logs of Nubia and certain other mummiecl dogs have the closest relation to a wild species of the same country, viz. a. sabbar, which is only a form of the common jackal. Pallas asserts that ~ jackals and dogs sometimes natmally cross in the East; and a case is on record in Algeria.24 The greater number of naturalists . divide the jackals of Asia and Africa into several species, but some few rank them all as one. I may add that tho domestic dogs on the coast of Guinea arc fox-like animals, and are clumb.25 On the east coast of Africa between lat. 4° and 6° south, and about ten days' journey in th~ interior, a semi-domestic dog, as the Rev. S. Erhardt informs me, is kept, which the natives assert is derived from a similar wild animal. Lichtenstein 26 says that the clogs of the Bosjemans present a striking resemblance even in colour ( exceptina the black stripe clown the back) with the a. mesomezas of south Africa. l\Ir. E. Layarcl informs me that he has seen a Caffre dog which closely resembled an 'Esquimaux clog. In Australia the Dingo is both domesticated and wild ; though this animal may ha.vc been introduced aboriginally by man, yet it must be considered as almost an endemic form, for its remains have been found in a similar state of preservation and associated with 22 Giildcnstadt, 'Nov. Comment. Acad. I ctrop.,' tom. xx., pro anno 1775, p. 449. ~3 Quoted by Do Dluinvillo in his 'Ostcographio, Oaniuro,' pp. 79, 98. 24 See Pallas, in 'Act. A cad. St. Pctcrsburgl1,' 1780, part ii. p. ()1. For Alg ria, see Isid. Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 'Hist. Nat. Gen.,' tom. iii. p. 177. In both countl'ics it is the male jackal which pairs with female domestic dogs. 25 John Barbut's 'Description of the Coast of Guinea in 1746.' 26 'Travels in South Africa,' vol. ii. p. 272. |