CANIS LUPUS. 129 
my own observations have uniformly led me to the same 
conclusions. Fig. 47. 
Cuvier,* premising that the 
accurate Daubenton, who seems 
first to have instituted the com- 
parison, had expressed how 
difficult it was to distinguish 
the skeleton of a Wolf from 
that of a ‘“* Matin,” (Wolf-dog 
or Irish Greyhound,) or a shep- 
herd’s dog of the same size, 
(=) 
proceeds to say that, more in- 
terested than Daubenton in dis- 
covering such distinguishing 
characters, he had long laboured 
for that especial object, compar- 
ing carefully the skulls of many 
individuals of those races of 
Dogs with the skulls of Wolves. 
He limits his observations, how- 
ever, to the points of difference 
which had attracted Dauben- Fossil humerus: of Wolf, 
ton’s notice, observing that the Wolf has the triangular 
* Ossem. Fossiles, tom. iv. p. 458. 
+I do not find in the excellent description of the Wolf in Buffon’s “ Histoire 
Naturelle,” (4to. 1758, tom. vii. p. 53) the expression which Cuvier cites. Dau- 
benton says, that the skeleton of the Wolf perfectly resembles that of the Dog in 
the number and position of the bones and teeth: the only appreciable difference 
being in the figure of certain bones, and in the size of the teeth and claws. The 
bony crests prolonged from the back part of the skull are longer in the Wolf 
than in the Matin. The teeth, especially the canines, are larger, and all the 
bones are rather stronger (un peu plus gros). The anterior part of the sternum is 
less curved upward than in the dog. Daubenton also alludes to an accidental 
anchylosis of the last lumbar vertebra to the right iliac bone in one skeleton of a 
Wolf examined by him ; p. 64. I cannot, however, appreciate any difference in 
the curvature of the sternum in the skeleton of an Arctic Wolf, as compared with 
a Newfoundland Dog. 
K 
