Chat. I. 



DOGS: THEIR PARENTAGE. 



15 



CHAPTER I. 



DOMESTIC DOG'S AND CATS. 



ANCIENT VARIETIES OF THE DOG — RESEMBLANCE OF DOMESTIC DOGS IN VARIOUS 

 COUNTRIES TO NATIVE CANINE SPECIES — ANIMALS NOT ACQUAINTED WITH 

 MAN AT FIRST FEARLESS — DOGS RESEMBLING WOLVES AND JACKALS — HABIT 

 OF BARKING ACQUIRED AND LOST — FERAL DOGS — TAN-COLOURED EYE-SPOTS 



PERIOD OF GESTATION — OFFENSIVE ODOUR — FERTILITY OF THE RACES WHEN 



CROSSED — DIFFERENCES IN THE SEVERAL RACES IN PART DUE TO DESCENT 

 FROM DISTINCT SPECIES — DIFFERENCES IN THE SKULL AND TEETH — DIFFER- 

 ENCES IN THE BODY, LN CONSTITUTION — FEW IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES 

 HAVE BEEN FIXED BY SELECTION — DLRECT ACTION OF CLIMATE — WATER- 

 DOGS WITH PALMATED FEET — HISTORY OF THE CHANGES WHICH CERTAIN 

 ENGLISH RACES OF THE DOG HAVE GRADUALLY UNDERGONE THROUGH 

 SELECTION — EXTINCTION OF THE LESS IMPROVED SUB-BREEDS. 



CATS, CROSSED WITH SEVERAL SPECIES — DIFFERENT BREEDS FOUND ONLY IN 

 SEPARATED COUNTRIES — DIRECT EFFECTS OF THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE — 

 FERAL CATS — INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY. 



Tff^ first and chief point of interest in this chapter is, whether 

 the numerous domesticated varieties of the dog have descended 

 from a single wild species, or from several. Some authors 

 believe that all have descended from the wolf, or from the 

 jackal, or from an unknown and extinct species. Others again 

 believe, and this of late has been the favourite tenet, that they 

 have descended from several species, extinct and recent, more 

 or less commingled together. We shall probably never be able 

 to ascertain their origin with certainty. Palaeontology 1 does 

 not throw much light on the question, owing, on the one 

 hand, to the close similarity of the skulls of extinct as well 

 as living wolves and jackals, and owing, on the other hand, to 



1 Owen, 'British Fossil Mammals,' 

 pp. 123 to 133. Pictet's ' Traite de 

 Pal.,' 1853, torn. i. p. 202. De Blain- 

 ville, in his ' Osteographie, Canidse,' 

 p. 142, has largely discussed the 

 whole subject, and concludes that 

 the extinct parent of all domesticated 

 dogs came nearest to the wolf in 

 organization, an 1 to the jackal in 



habits. See also Boyd Dawkins, 

 'Cave Hunting,' 1874, p. 131, &c, 

 and his other publications. Jeitteles 

 has discussed in great detail the 

 character of the breeds of pre-historic 

 dogs : ' Die vorgeschichtlichen Alter- 

 thiimer der Stadt Olmiitz,' II. Theii, 

 1872, p. 44 to end. 



