August, 1924. The Irish Naturalist, yy 



ON THE BREEDS OF DOGS PECULIAR TO IRELAND 



AND THEIR ORIGIN. 



BY R. F. SCHARFF, B.SC, PH.D. 



Very few notes have been published in this Journal on 

 the breeds or races of dogs endemic in Ireland. Indeed, 

 comparatively little has ever been written on any Irish 

 dogs except the Wolfhound, although it is a subject specially 

 attractive to us, for the Irish, from the most remote times, 

 have almost worshipped dogs, and ancient Irish history 

 abounds in dog-lore. Of all the domesticated animals, 

 the dog is, undoubtedly^ the oldest, and he seems to cherish 

 a peculiar affection for man. The domestic dog has a 

 remote history. Several kinds were even known to the 

 ancient Egyptians as far back as about 4,000 B.C. It is 

 not surprising, therefore, that the origin of the dog has 

 caused a great deal of discussion and speculation, and that 

 the views of those who made a study of the subject differ 

 often widely. Some w^ould derive dogs from wolves, others 

 from jackals, while the opinion that domesticated dogs 

 took their rise from wild dogs has many adherents. Darwin 

 came to the conclusion that the balance of evidence was 

 strongly in favour of the multiple origin of dogs.^ Most 

 authorities now agree with this view. It is probable, 

 therefore, that the origin of the domesticated dog is poly- 

 phyletic ; that is to say, the dog arose independently 

 from several kinds of wild dog-like ancestors in one or 

 more regions of the world. The large and ancient group 

 of Greyhounds may have been derived from the Pariah 

 dog, which itself seems to be a descendant of the wild 

 Dingo dog. It has been suggested by Studer- that the 

 Torfhund or Turf-dog (as we may call it) was the ancestor 

 of the Terriers, Pomeranian dogs. Chows and their allies. 

 Some of the American breeds of dogs are believed to have 



1 Darwin, C. : "Animals and Plants under Domestication." London,' 

 2nd ed. 2 vols. 1899. 



2 Studer, Th. : "Die praehistorischen Hunde." Abhandl. d. Schweiz. 

 palaeont. Gesellsch., vol. xxviii., 1901. 



A 



