440 bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



of this breed. The associated fauna, however, is of a more southern 

 character than would be expected as companions of this Arctic dog. 



Of the larger dogs of the New World, the Eskimo Dog is the only 

 one that habitualh^ carries its tail curled forward over the hip. This 

 character, striking as it is, does not seem to have been particularly 

 studied from the standpoint of heritability, to see if it behaves as a 

 Mendelian character when contrasted with a drooping tail. Yet it is a 

 highly important trait, and is found not only among the dogs of similar 

 appearance in the north of Asia and Europe, but in other varieties, 

 possibly related, and of more southern habitat in those continents. 

 The so-called Chow Dog of China, a medium-sized red, or sometimes 

 black (Kreyenberg, 1910) dog, with erect earsand powerful shoulders has 

 the same sort of tail. A similar, though slightly smaller dog standing 

 50 cm. high at the shoulder is found among the Battaks of Sumatra 

 (Studer, 1901 , p. 31 ). The same curled tail is found in the Pomeranian 

 Dogs, that appear in the decoration of Greek vases (Keller, 1909) or as 

 figurines of Mycenian times. The fact that the curled tail carried 

 over the hip is so widely characteristic of certain breeds of Old World 

 dogs, where it seems to have been known from ancient times, implies 

 that it originated there and strengthens the view that the Eskimo 

 Dog came from Asia with the Eskimo. The contention that " the 

 canine of the American aborigine, or Amerind, was simply a tame 

 wolf, differing from its wild brother in the qualities that would nat- 

 urally follow breeding in the semi-domestication of the savage" and 

 that the dog "bred by the Indians in the forest regions, and the 

 Eskimos, was always derived from the Gray wolf" (Thorndike, 1911), 

 seems only remotely true. There is much evidence, though of a 

 somewhat uncertain character, that wild male Wolves will breed with 

 female Eskimo Dogs at proper seasons, and the northern Indians are 

 said to encourage such occasional crosses. Thorndike states that 

 tame wolves are sometimes seen in harness with the dogs in the North. 

 Nevertheless, under usual circumstances, those who have lived in 

 Arctic countries agree that wolves are highly unfriendly with the dogs, 

 and a single wolf is more than a match for several dogs. There seems 

 to be no evidence that Wolf cubs were habitually reared by either 

 Eskimo or Indian, which one would expect to be the custom if the 

 Eskimo Dog is merely a Wolf, tamed. Hearne (1796) mentions that 

 some Indians, on finding a Wolf's den, fondled the little cubs, and 

 painted their faces with vermilion, but returned them to the den and 

 made no attempt to rear them. He adds (p. 362) that " all the wolves 

 in Hudson's Bay are very shy of the human race, yet when sharp set, 



