32 



Bovine ... Ox, Zebu, Yak, 

 Gayal, Banteng, 

 Buffalo, Goat, and 

 Sheep 

 Leporine ... Rabbit 

 Canine ... Guinea Pig 



The special object of my paper is to put very briefly 

 before you, the probable causes why each of the species 

 has been domesticated, and in some cases point out why 

 others apparently very closely allied have not been subdued 

 by man's use. 



At the head of all domestic animals unquestionably 

 stands the Dog, it has all the qualities a domestic animal 

 should possess, amongst them companionableness in the 

 highest degree. 



The Dog is without doubt descended from the Wolf, 

 indeed the dogs kept by the Indians on the shores of 

 Hudson's Bay, I am assured by my friend, Mr. Walter 

 Haydon, who spent five years there, are invariably bred from 

 wolf sires. 



The dog in the wild state associates in packs, hence 

 its companionableness, the fox on the other hand is solitary, 

 and in confinement is naturally morose, and under the altered 

 conditions it is usually infertile, its domestication is therefore 

 barred. 



Mr. Darwin, in a letter to me, pointed out that domestica- 

 tion tends to the fertility of hybrids; this no doubt is so, 

 and the dog has crossed with many of the wolves inhabiting 

 the countries to which it has been taken, without becoming 

 sterile, so that not only is this useful animal perfectly fertile 

 in captivity, which was a necessary condition of its reclama- 

 tion, but so little are the highly specialized reproductive 

 organs affected, that even hybridity does not end in sterility. 



The dog has doubtless been tamed from a remote 

 antiquity; in the hunting stage of man he assisted in the 

 chase, in the pastoral stage he became the guardian of his 

 flocks and herds, and even now is the indispensable shepherd's 

 companion and assistant. 



