September, 1924. The Irish Naturalist. 89 



ON THE BREEDS OF DOGS PECULIAR TO IRELAND 



AND THEIR ORIGIN. 



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



{Concluded from page 88.) 



in Dublin. They were subsequently examined b}^ Prof. 

 Leith Adams, who commented on. their extreme likeness 

 to those of Wolves. ^^ Yet he decided that they must have 

 belonged to a breed of dog similar to the Scottish Deer- 

 hound. More recently casts of the same skulls were sub- 

 mitted to Prof. Th. Studer, of Berne, who pronounced 

 them to belong to the Irish Wollhound. By comparison 

 with skulls of the modern breed, such as that of Capt. 

 Graham of Dursley, or H. Walker of St. Moritz, he found 

 the modern more slender and elongated than the pre- 

 historic ones, but clearly of the same variety. He expressed 

 the opinion that the ancient Wolfhound might have 

 reached a height of over a metre (that is to say 39 inches) 

 at the shoulders. He also stated that the skull of the Scottish 

 Deerhound shows an agreement in shape and form with 

 that of the Irish Wolfhound, but that it is somewhat more 

 elongated and more slender. ^^ 



Many authorities have commented on the verv^ close 

 relationship of the Irish Wolfhound to the Wolf, and some 

 even doubt whether any vahd and rehable distinction 

 between the skeletons of dogs and Wolves can be found. 

 Studer, however, first drew attention to a peculiarity 

 which always seemed to distinguish dogs and Wolves from 

 one another, and that is the position and shape of the eye- 

 sockets. The eyes in the Wolf are placed somewhat more 

 laterally than in the dog, with the result that they alter its 

 whole physionomy. In the skull this fact becomes apparent 

 b}^ measuring the angle between the plane of the orbit and 

 that of the brow by means of the clinometer. If that angle 



19 Adams, Leith : On the recent and extinct Irish Mammals. Proc. 

 JR. Dublin Soc. (N.S.), vol. ii., 1878. 



20 Studer, Th. : Die praehistorischen Hunde. Abhandl. der Schweiz. 

 palaeont. Gesellsch. vol. xxviii,, 1901. 



A 



