45S bulletin: museum of comparative zoology. 



yet slightly inferior to those of a Greyhound. The first lower pre- 

 molar was frequently wanting. 



Distrihidion. — Dogs of this general tjy-pe, agreeing fairly well in size 

 and proportions were found among the forest Indians from Alaska 

 southward to Florida and the Greater Antilles, and westward to the 

 edge of the plains in the east central States. The more northern dogs 

 seem to average a little larger than those from the south, but in the 

 absence of more exact knowledge seem best referred to this type. No 

 doubt in the far Northwest there was more or less mixture with the 

 Eskimo Dog. Probably too, local strains of this general type of dog 

 could be distinguished, did we know their external characteristics, 

 but the skulls and teeth seem remarkably similar over a wide area. 



Skeletal remains. — Cope (1893) was the first to describe the jaw of 

 this dog from a specimen collected by Moore from a shell-mound on 

 St. John's River, Florida. He was struck by the fact that the first 

 lower premolar was missing and appeared not to have developed. 

 The strong development of the entoconid of the carnassial, he also 

 noticed. Moore, in the course of various explorations in Florida and 

 Georgia discovered many remains of dogs, apparently of this t^-pe. 

 In a large mound on Ossabaw Island, Georgia, he (1897) found several 

 interments of human and dog-skeletons, the latter always buried sepa- 

 rately and entire, showing that the dogs had not been used as food. 

 Other dog-skeletons of a similar sort were found by Moore (1899) in 

 aboriginal mounds on the South Carolina coast. Several of the 

 skulls collected by him are in the Peabody Museum, where I have 

 had the privilege of studying them. Putnam (1896) considered them 

 the same as those of the larger Madisonville dogs. More recently 

 the M. C. Z. has received from Prof. Carlos de la Torre, two frag- 

 mentary skulls of dogs associated with pre-Columbian burials in Cuba. 

 These skulls seem to be essentially similar as far as can be judged. 

 Miller (1916) has reported a lower jaw of a dog from an Indian site 

 in Cuba. 



Three crania in excellent condition, from the INIadisonville, Ohio, 

 site agree in their somewhat slender proportions, with narrow palate 

 and rostrum. A strong but thin bony crest is developed along the 

 midline of the brain-case, and there is a noticeable inflation of the 

 region just back of the supraorbital processes. The first premolar 

 is absent in both eraniimi and jaw of one specimen. Two crania from 

 a shell-heap at La Moine, Maine, similarly lack the first premolar. 

 One of these latter is a much larger skull than any of those from 

 MadisonA-ille, which may indicate some variation in the local breeds. 



