THE NATIONAL ZOO AT WASHINGTON. 715 



the look of untamed savageness; he has no appearance of being even 

 partly at home in his cage. None of his race has ever been known to 

 accept submissively the prisoner's condition, so that the species does 

 not breed in captivity, nor do his relatives and fellow-captives, the 

 buzzard hawkand the serpent eagle. Doubtless this is simply another 

 ease where it is necessary to restore the wild condition in order to 

 know the perfect bird. Some day we may have a cage large enough 

 to give them a chance really to use their wings, and then they may 

 condescend to show us how their forbears built their nests and reared 

 and trained their offspring - for the chase. 



The tine collection of wolves, still in small quarters, gives a good 

 opportunity of seeing how near they are to dogs in their general 

 habits and appearance. 



Zoologists have long discussed the origin of the dog. Some con- 

 sider it the descendant of a wolf; others, of an extinct species: and 

 some say that the jackal is the wild stock it came from. There are 

 many good arguments against the second theory. To-day it is believed 

 that either the wolf or the jackal was the wild ancestor of the dog. 1 

 am convinced that the jackal is the stock parent, though a strain of 

 wolf blood has certainly been infused in some countries. 



It long ago struck me that reversion is the best evidence in a dis- 

 cussion of this kind, and my own observations on dogs that have 

 reverted, or gone back, to their ancestral form point very uniformly 

 to one conclusion. 



The general color of a wolf is grayish, with a black or dark tail tip, 

 rarely with light-colored spots, or '"bees," over its eyes, and with a 

 height at the shoulder of about 26 inches. 



The general color of a jackal is yellowish, with more or less white 

 hair in the tip of its tail, and invariably with bees over its eyes. Its 

 height is about 20 inches at the shoulder. 



All the largest breeds of dogs show signs of overdevelopment, such 

 as faulty teeth, superfluous toes, frail constitutions, etc. All dogs 

 that have any white about them have at least a few white hairs in the 

 tip of the tail; and when allowed to mongrelize freely — that is, to 

 revert — the dog always becomes a small, yellowish animal, with brown 

 bees over its eyes, a white tail tip, and a height at the shoulder of 

 about twenty inches — that is, it resumes the jackal type. 



Another argument, which I have not seen in print, is this: Although 

 the wolf was abundant in Europe during the old stone age. the dog 

 was unknown till it appeared on the scene with the Neoliths, a race 

 that came from the home of the jackal. 



My observations on the habits are evidence for the jackal theory. 

 Wolves rarely turn around before lying down: dogs and jackals usualh 

 do. Wolves rarely bark, while jackals, as is well known, do fre- 

 quently bark after the manner of dogs. 



While sketching among the jackals in the Jardin des Plantes, Paris. 



