THE DOG 13 



the dog through the admixture of the blood of several differ- 

 ent species, the wolf and the jackal being, perhaps, the prin- 

 cipal or the only components of the hybrid stock. Here, too, 

 the evidence of nature is against the supposition. No one 

 has ever succeeded in hybridizing the wolf and the jackal, 

 nor do our dogs show any more tendency to revert to the 

 jackal than to the wolf. They meet their tropical relative 



Greyhound after "the Kill" 



with as much animosity as is proper, or at least customary, 

 in the intercourse of allied yet distinct species. In fact, 

 all the indices by which we are able to carry back the 

 history of other domesticated animals to their primitive or 

 even extinct ancestry, fail in the case of the dog. When 

 the stock is allowed to go as nearly wild as they can 

 be induced to become, we do not find that they thereby 

 approach to any known wild form. It therefore seems 



