CLASS ^AMMALIA. 258 



drinks by lapping, and so avoids the danger of swallow- 

 ing large quantities of cold water when the body is 

 overheated. 



The Wolf, of which there is now considered to be but 

 one species in North America, is the best representative 

 of the Dogs. It generally hunts in packs. Unless im- 

 pelled by hunger,* they seldom attack prey larger than 

 themselves, and they are so wary of traps that a traveler 

 when pursued, has fright- 



FIG. 440. 



ened them away by merely 

 trailing a cord. Their bite, 

 unlike that of any other 

 animal, is a succession of 

 quick, violent snaps. 



Of all the conquests 

 achieved by man over ani- 

 mals, that of the Dog is the 



-i -, (Jd'nis J'amiltft'ris. Mastiff. 



most complete, and, per- 

 haps, the most useful. Not only is he the sole mammal 

 that has followed man to the ends of the earth, but 

 more than any other is he capable of education and 

 disinterested affection. His habit of repeatedly turning 

 round before lying down, is regarded as a singular reten- 

 tion of his mode in the wild state f of making a lair in 



* Such is then their rapacity that they will make a meal of a harness, < 

 even of old shoes that may be within their reach. 



t The canine (kdnin') race, like the human, inherently adapted to variation 

 and development, through the influence of climate and condition, presents in- 

 numerable varieties ; thcrugh all are considered by most naturalists as having a 

 common origin and to be regarded of one species. Many have supposed the wolf 

 to be the progenitor of the dog. But, while the osteological structure of the two 

 is identical, the total want of similarity in disposition, especially in affection for 

 man, their hostility to each other, and their permanent physical differences as 

 the obliquity of the wolf's eye, and its drooping tail oppose this theory. Besides, 

 it is as reasonable to presume that the wolf descended from the dog, as the dog 

 from the wolf. But no wild dogs as, for instance, those of the Antilles, known 

 to have sprung from domestic varieties have ever approximated the character- 



