24)6 M. Marcel de Serres on the Distinctive Characters 



complete, and enabled us to prove, from anatomical characters, 

 that it is with the greatest propriety that the majority of natu- 

 ralists have regarded the dog, the wolf, the fox, and the chacal, 

 as forming different and distinct species. 



The observations which we now offer can scarcely be regard- 

 ed as devoid of interest ; they were suggested by Mr Jobert, 

 one of the editors of the Bulletin de Geologie. This naturalist 

 having honestly said, that he knew of no characters by which 

 the skeleton of the dog could be distinguished from that of the 

 wolf and fox, we have endeavoured to answer the appeal thus 

 made, and have accordingly undertaken the examination and 

 comparison of the skeletons of these animals. 



Our place of residence, unfortunately, has not allowed us to 

 give to the investigation all the perfection it might receive. At 

 a distance from a great museum, which, from the mania for 

 centralization which afflicts France, is to be found solely at Pa- 

 ris, we have not been able to procure those means of comparison 

 which are indispensable. At all events, however, we have done 

 our best to avail ourselves of the collections which have been 

 formed by the Faculty of Sciences at Montpellier, the result of 

 that ardent zeal which animates them in the promotion of ana- 

 tomical science. When heads of different races of dogs are exa- 

 mined, and attentively compared with those of the wolf and fox, 

 it may easily be observed that differences exist between them 

 much more important than those which result from the relative 

 size.* Thus, in comparing the heads of many kinds of the dog, 

 and particularly those of the mastiff, the pointer, the spaniel, 

 and the carlin, with that of the wolf, it is easily observed that 

 the cavity of the cranium is much more developed in the former 

 than in the latter. The distance between the two parietal pro- 

 tuberances is also much greater in the dog than in the wolf. 

 But the difference in the size of the cavity of the cranium, 



■ • Many naturalists will hear, not perhaps without surprise, that even Lin- 

 nsEUS, in the 12th edit on of his Species, aud Gmelin, in the 13th, distinguish- 

 ed the wolf, dog, and fox, by the following characters alone : tail straight or 

 bent to the left, or downwards, of a uniform colour, or tipt with white hairs. 

 We subjoin the very words of the great naturalist. Canis familiaris, cauda 

 sinistrorstim recurvd. — Canis — lupus, catidd iyicurvatd — Canis vulpes, cauda rec- 

 ta, apice albo Linn. Species Mainm. Ed. 12. p. 58, 59. 



