ALLEN: DOGS OF THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES. 503 



Summary. 



Recent careful studies of the teeth indicate that the domestic dog's 

 relationship is with the wolves rather than with the groups of canids 

 represented l)y coyote, jackal, or fox. The ultimate wolf-like ancestor 

 of the dog is yet to be determined, but present evidence favors the 

 view that it was not one of the large circiunboreal wolves, but possibly 

 a distinct and smaller species, from which both large and small breeds 

 of dogs have been derived. - 



The domestic dogs of the American aborigines were ciuite as trulj' 

 typical dogs as those of Asia, and may be assumed to ha\e reached 

 America from that continent, with their human companions. Al- 

 though it is possible that the larger dogs may interbreed occasionally 

 with wolf or coyote, there is no good reason to suppose that such cross- 

 ing has had much if any, influence on the original stock. 



■ In a very general way, three types of dogs nia\' be distinguished 

 among the American aborigines: (1) the large, l)road-muzzled, Es- 

 kimo Dog, with hea\y coat and tail curled forward over the hip; 

 (2) a larger and (3) a smaller Indian Dog, from which are probably to 

 be derived several distinct local breeds. Of the larger style of dog as 

 many as ele\en \arieties may perhaps be distinguished: of the smaller, 

 five. 



An interesting and suggesti\'e parallel is found among prehistoric 

 European dogs, of which in late Neolithic and early Bronze periods 

 there were a large and a small type — Canis intermedium and C. 

 palustris — corresponding rather closely to the Larger or Common 

 Indian Dog and the Small Indian Dog or Techichi. The obvious 

 probability is that these two general types of dogs were then widely 

 cultivated in Asia, and at a very early period reached Europe and 

 America with the human immigrants. In a similar way the Eskimo 

 Dog is of a type common to northern Asia and Europe, and doubtless 

 reached America with the Eskimos, whose arrival, at least in eastern 

 America is usually regarded as relatively recent. 



