1850.] 85 



Dr. Liedy read a paper describing several species of Entozoa, which 

 was referred to a committee on a previous paper by the same author, 

 viz., Drs. Hallowell, Keller and Zantzinger. 



Dr. Liedy also read a paper entitled " JNotes on the development of 

 the Gordius aquaticus," which was likewise referred to the preceding 

 committee. 



Dr. Morton made the following observations on the Antiquity of 

 some Races of Dogs : 



In tracing back the age of certain canine breeds and species, I chiefly avail my- 

 self of the chronology of Prof. Lepsius, which lias happily revealed the proximate 

 dates of the Egyptian monuments, and thus enabled us to refer both man and 

 animals to their respective epochs of time. 



The following facts are offered as the initiatory portion of an extended series 

 which it is my intention from time to time to bring forward. 



1. The Fox-Dog (C. lupaster.) This animal is of the middle size, with 

 erect ears and somewhat bushy tail. It appears to be the oldest dog of which the 

 Egyptians have left an effigy ; for it represents a symbol in their alphabet,* with 

 which it must be coeval, and therefore demonstrably not much less than six thou- 

 sand years old. This same dog is again represented on the paintings in the tomb of 

 Roti, at Beni Hassan, which date with the Xllth dynasty, or the 23rd century 

 B. C. ; and he can thence be traced downwards, through the successive monumen- 

 tal periods, until these cease to record the affairs of Egypt. It is also found em- 

 balmed in great numbers in various parts of that country , and lastly, it appears to 

 have been " the parent stock of the modern red wild-dog so common at Cairo and 

 the other towns of the lower country." f Clot-Bey observes that it now leads a 

 nomadic life, and generally without a master, and like the jackal and the fox, 

 frequents the confines of the desert. It does not usually associate with other dogs, 

 but is capable of re-producing with them ; but this cross-breed is of no use or 

 value. Ehrenberg, who calls this animal Ca?iis lupaster, swpposes it to have been 

 primitively a wolf; but as in its present wild state it nowhere becomes a true 

 wolf, we may more safely refer its origin to some feral stock, once and perhaps 

 yet indigenous to the region of the Nile. 



2. The Greyhound (C grams.) There are three varieties of this animal 

 represented on the monuments of Egypt; but the oldest has long, erect ears, with 

 a smooth, short (and probably cropped) tail. I first detect it in the paintings in a 

 tomb of the IlIrd dynasty, (where it occurs in several different places,) and is 

 consequently upwards of five thousand years old ; thence, I have traced it down 

 through the Vlth and Xllth dynasties, where my researches stop for the present 

 for want of the requisite leisure. But this same dog may possibly be represented by 

 the Roumelian greyhound of the present day, which, however, I know only from, 

 description. 



3. Another greyhound first appears in the tomb of Roti, at Beni Hassan, in the 

 23rd century before Christ, t It has all the characters of the pendant-eared grey- 

 hound of the present day, as figured by Buffon, but is represented with cropped 



* Bunsen, Egypt's place in Universal History, p. 417. 



t Wilkinson, Manners and Customs of the Ancient Egyptians, III, p. 38. 



jRosellini, Mon. Tav. XVII, fig. 3. 



