Chap. I. THEIR PARENTAGE. 33 



which in external appearance so closely resembles the Euro- 

 pean wolf, ought to be crossed with this wolf: and the 

 pariah dogs of India with Indian wolves and jackals ; and so 

 in other cases. That the sterility is very slight between 

 certain dogs and wolves and other Canidae is shown by 

 savages taking the trouble to cross them. BufFon got four 

 successive generations from the wolf and dog, and the 

 mongrels were perfectly fertile together. 48 But more lately 

 M. Flourens states positively as the result of his numerous 

 experiments that hybrids from the wolf and dog, crossed 

 inter se, become sterile at the third generation, and those 

 from the jackal and dog at the fourth generation. 49 But 

 these animals were closely confined ; and many wild animals, 

 as we shall see in a future chapter, are rendered by confine- 

 ment in some degree or even utterly sterile. The Dingo, 

 which breeds freely in Australia with our imported dogs, 

 would not breed though repeatedly crossed in the Jardin des 

 Plantes. 50 Some hounds from Central Africa, brought home 

 by Major Denham, never bred in the Tower of London ; 51 

 and a similar tendency to sterility might be transmitted to 

 the hybrid offspring of a wild animal. Moreover, it appears 

 that in M. Flourens' experiments the hybrids were closely 

 bred in and in for three or four generations ; and this cir- 

 cumstance, would most certainly increase the tendency to 

 sterility. Several years ago I saw confined in the Zoological 

 Gardens of London a female hybrid from an English dog 

 and jackal, which even in this the first generation was so 

 sterile that, as I was assured by her keeper, she did not fully 



48 M. Broea has shown (' Journal de well-known. See also Isid. Geoffroy 

 Physiologie,' torn. ii. p. 353) that St.-Hilaire, ' Hist. Nat. Gen.,' torn. iii. 

 Button's experiments have been often p. 217, who speaks of the hybrid off- 

 misrepresented. Broca has collected spring of the jackal as perfectly fertile 

 (pp. 390-395) many facts on the for three generations. 



fertility of crossed dogs, wolves, and 50 On authority of F. Cuvier, 



jackals. quoted in Bronn's * Geschichte der 



49 ' De la Longevite Humaine,' par Natur,' B. ii. s. 164. 



M. Flourens, 1855, p. 143. Mr. Blyth 51 W. C. L. Martin, ' History of the 



says ('Indian Sporting Review,' vol. Dog,' 1845, p. 203. Mr. Philip P. 



u. p. 137) that he ha>> seen in India King, after ample opportunities of 



several hybrids from the pariah-dog observation, informs me that the 



and jackal ; and between one of these Dingo and European dogs often cross 



hybrids and a terrier. The experi- in Australia, 

 ments of Hunter on the jackal are 



3 



