ALLEN: DOGS OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 437 



While some authors have considered that modern dogs are poly- 

 phyletic, and would trace the ancestry of the larger breeds to wolves 

 and of the smaller to foxes (Woldrich, 1886a, even suggests the Fen- 

 nee!), it seems more reasonable to derive them all from a medium- 

 sized dog through selective breeding. Nevertheless it is possible to 

 divide modern breeds into some four to six groups, based mainly on 

 size and minor external characters as erect or lop-ears, drooping or 

 curled-up tail, etc. Cuvier (1808) believed that the French Sheep- 

 dog approached the wild prototype most nearly of all domestic 

 breeds, and considered the Australian Dingo as the most primitive 

 true dog. The characters considered primitive are chiefly the medium 

 size, the erect, wolf-like ears, imshortened snout, drooping and 

 moderately haired tail, and low forehead. The ability to bark is 

 often considered an acquired trait; and the more primitive dogs, 

 such as the Eskimo, howl like wolves more than they bark. 



Historic evidence as to the ancestry of the Dog does not carry the 

 matter far enough. The Egyptians had dogs as far back as the records 

 go — certainly four to five thousand years before the Christian era. 

 The same is apparently true of the Chinese, Avhose history goes back 

 nearly as far. Lertet and Gaillard (1909) recognize four breeds of 

 dogs among the mummified remains from Assiout. Fitzinger (1866) 

 has summarized the ancient history of dogs known from the earliest 

 writings of Rome, (ireece, Assyria, and Egypt. Yet it is clear that 

 at the dawn of history, the nations of Europe, Asia, and North Africa 

 had dogs of several breeds, more or less characteristic of each people. 

 Thus the Greyhound type seems especially prevalent in Egypt and is 

 to this day associated with the desert-loving races of Persia and 

 northern Africa. 



European archaeologists have made many disco\'eries of dog-re- 

 mains in association with bones and implements of prehistoric man, 

 particularly in the caves and old Lake-dwellings of southern P^urope. 

 Hitherto at least eleven different Latin names have been applied to 

 as many supposedly distinct prehistoric dogs of P^urope. Anutschin 

 (1881) announced the discovery of the first dog-remains to be found in 

 Russia. Parts of fourteen dog-skeletons were found in building the 

 Ladoga Canal, and represent two types which he names respectively 

 Cams familiaris palustriti ladogcusis, and C. f. inostranzcivii. He con- 

 siders these to be of the Stone Age, and that the former is closely allied 

 to the Siberian and Northwest American Sledge-dogs — (Eskimo). 

 The latter he thinks Aery similar to the C. mafri.s-optiiiiac, a deer- 

 hound-like type, from the Bronze Age, or even earlier (Neolithic, 



