440 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



must have brouj^ht their dogs with them, presumably from Asia, and 

 this probably at a culture stage prior to the domestication of other 

 animals, at least in the North, since no other domestic animal is com- 

 mon to the peoples of both hemispheres. The Asiatic origin of Ameri- 

 can dogs has previously l)een suggested by Mercer (1897, p. 12G) and 

 Wissler (1917). 



The probability therefore is, that the Domestic Dog originated in 

 Asia and was carried by primitive man both east and west into all 

 parts of the inhabited world. That this migration began in late 

 Pleistocene times seems highly probable. 



In the Western Hemisphere three types of dogs may in a very 

 general way be distingui.shed : — (1) the large wolf-like Eskimo Dog 

 of the Arctic countries, strong, powerfully built, with broad muzzle, 

 erect ears, and large bushy tail curled forward o\er the hip; (2) a 

 smaller type, ^•arying more or less in size and proportions, with erect 

 ears but a drooping tail; and (3) a much smaller type, the size of a 

 terrier, heavy of bone, usually with shortened rostrum as seen among 

 the tribes of the Southwest or again, apparently more slender both in 

 limb and skull as in southern Mexico or parts of South America. 

 South of the Eskimo country, the two latter types of dogs are char- 

 acteristic, and seem to have occurred together over much of their 

 range, so that travellers often mentioned a "wolf-like" and a "fox- 

 like " dog among the Indians of both North and South America. 

 In this connection, it is interesting to recall Kohler's (1896) statement 

 that in eastern Asia, between the provinces of Gansing and Ussuri, 

 the Chinese have small fox -like dogs, a comparison of which with the 

 small American dogs would be of interest. The smaller American 

 dogs of the slender type (Techichi) seem not xery different from the 

 Old "World C. palustris, and may be not remotely related. The more 

 heavily built small dogs with shortened faces and shorter, stouter 

 limb-bones, are perhaps deri\'ed from the more slender t\'pe, and 

 possibly owe certain of their peculiarities to cross-breeding with the 

 larger dogs, though this is at present wholly conjectural. 



Breeds of American Aboriginal Dogs. 



While in a \ery general way it may be said, that excluding the 

 Eskimo Dog, the American Indians had domestic dogs of two chief 

 types, a larger and a smaller, there were apparently sundry local breeds 

 of these, probably conforming in distribution with the general areas 



