2.30 MamMALIA OF INDIA. 
GENUS CANIS—THE DOG. 
Muzzle obtuse ; tail short ; no caudal gland, 
—!; premolar, 4—4; molar, 2—?. 
—I ? 4— 
Dental formula: inc., = can., * 
This genus contains the wolf and the jackal, as well as the dog 
proper. 
The origin of the domestic dog (Canis familiaris) is involved in 
obscurity ; it is mentioned in its domestic state and in an infinity of 
Dentition of Wolf. 
varieties in records of remote ages. Job talks of “the dogs of my 
flock,” and in the Assyrian monuments, as far back as 3400 years 
before Christ, various forms are represented; and in Egypt not only 
representations of known varieties, easy to be recognised, are found, 
but numerous mummies have been exhumed, the animal having been 
held in special veneration, There is a preponderance of opinion 
strongly in favour of the theory that the domestic dog sprang from the 
wolf, and much argument has been advanced in support of this idea. 
The principal objection made to this by those who hold opposite views 
is the fact that no dog in a wild state barks, but only howls. 
