lOG MAMMALS. 



opposite view are divided in opinion as to v/lictlier all are the descendants of one sjjecics, or 

 whether they have not been derived from several. Their variability, their universal commixture, the 

 perfect fertility of the jaroduce of the most widely separated varieties, are arguments in favour of 

 their being only one sjiecies. The remarkable difference between some of the varieties is the 

 argument usually most relied on for the jjlurality of stocks. 



Remains of the Dog have been discovered by Limd in the caverns of Ihazil, and it is interesting 

 to find that the extinct species (Speothos i'acivorus) to which they belong has much analogy to 

 species now living in the same country, viz., C. caxcrivorus and C. prim^evus, — not the Nepalcse 

 C PRTMiEVUS of Hodgson, which, by the way, on the strength of native traditions, he thinks, 

 may be the original from which the domestic Dog has descended. 



Existing Dogs and Wolves. The distribution of existing species is pretty equally divided 

 between Asia, North America, and South America : Africa has fewer, and Euroj)e least of all. The 

 difference of opinion as to what constitutes species in this family is so groat that it is not easy 

 to make a fair estimate of their number. But, according to my reckoning, Asia possesses fifteen ; 

 North America, ten ; South America, nine ; and Africa, eia'ht. And a number of these species are 

 found in more than one of these countries. Europe ha\ five, four of which are also found either 

 in Asia, Africa, or America. Australia has only one, the Dingo, which, being the sole placental 

 animal of any size in that country, has been supposed to have been introduced by man ; — not an 

 untenable proposition, if we admit the existence of a great Pacific Continent peopled by men far 

 buck in geok)gical time ; it is thoroughly Vv'ild, but approaches the domestic Dog, and is ju'obably 

 more nearly allied to tlie Jackal of India and the Indian Archij)elago than any other species. 

 It, or a variety of it, is also found in New Zealand; and, according to Polack (i. 320), "it has 

 been an inhabitant there some two oi' three centuries ; " but it is said to have been introduced 

 from Australia. " The Dog of the natives," says Dieffenbach, " is not the Australian Dingo, but 

 a much smaller varietj^, resembling the Jackal, and of a dirty yellowish colour. It is now rarely 

 met with, as almost the whole race of the island has become a mongrel breed."* 



Professor M'Coy, in a recent comparison between the ancient and modein natural history 

 of Victoria, t states that he had identified remains of the Canis Dingo in the bone caverns lately 

 opened beneath the basalt flows at Mount Macedon. They were found associated with those of 

 Macropus Titan, and of recent species of Hypsiprymnus and Hvuromys. He infers from this and 

 other arguments that the Dingo is an indigenous animal. But, as Mr. Falconer says, there is no 

 evidence that man may not then have been an inhabitant of Australia, and the Dingo introduced 

 along with him, long anterior to the eruptions at ]\Iount Macedon. J 



The range of the "Wolves stretches quite across Europe and Asia, from the German Ocean to the 

 Pacific. Temminck describes a species in Japan as distinct under the name C. hodophylax, but it 

 will, no doubt, be also found in Eastern Asia. The true Wolves are confined to the northern portion 

 of the northern hemisphere. 



The common Wolf (C. Lupus) was, until a comparatively late period, a denizen of the forests 

 in England. In the early history of England there are various laws relating to them which testify 



* DiEFPEXBACU, "Ti-avels in New Zealand," p. 181. pp. 1 15, 147. 



t M'Cor on "Ancient and Modern Natural History, J Falconer, in "Natural History Review," Jmuiry 



1860," in Ann. " Nat. Hist." 3rd Series, 18C2j vol. ix. 1863, p. 96. 



