Chap. I. THEIR PARENTAGE. 45 



character — and the change was probably desired owing to 

 the increased fleetness of our hunters — it rapidly spread 

 throughout the country, and is now everywhere nearly 

 uniform. But the process of improvement is still going on 

 for every one tries to improve his strain by occasionally 

 procuring dogs from the best kennels. Through this process 

 of gradual substitution the old English hound has been lost ; 

 and so it has been with the Irish wolf-dog, the old English 

 bulldog, and several other breeds, such as the alaunt, as I am 

 informed by Mr. Jesse. But the extinction of former breeds 

 is apparently aided by another cause ; for whenever a breed 

 is kept in scanty numbers, as at present with the bloodhound, 

 it is reared with some difficulty, apparently from the evil 

 effects of long-continued close interbreeding. As several 

 breeds of the dog have been slightly but sensibly modified 

 within so short a period as the last one or two centuries, by 

 the selection of the best individuals, modified in many cases 

 by crosses with other breeds ; and as we shall hereafter see 

 that the breeding of dogs was attended to in ancient times, 

 as it still is by savages, we may conclude that we have in 

 selection, even if only occasionally practised, a potent means 

 of modification. 



Domestic Cats. 



Cats have been domesticated in the East from an ancient 

 period ; Mr. Blyth informs me that they are mentioned in a 

 Sanskrit writing 2000 years old, and in Egypt their antiquity 

 is known to be even greater, as shown by monumental draw- 

 ings and their mummied bodies. These mummies, according 

 to De Blainville, 88 who has particularly studied the subject, 

 belong to no less than three species, namely, F. caligulata, 

 bubastes, and chaus. The two former species are said to be 

 still found, both wild and domesticated, in parts of Egypt. 

 F. caligulata presents a difference in the first inferior milk 

 molar tooth, as compared with the domestic cats of Europe, 

 which makes De Blainville conclude that it is not one of the 



88 De Blainville, 'Osteographie, other mummied species. He quotes 

 ^elis,' p. 65, on the character of F. Ehrenburg on F. maniculata being 

 caligulata; pp. 85, 89, 90, 175, on the mummied. 



