52 



NATURAL HISTORY OF VERMONT. 



Pakt I. 



THE DOG. 



THE CAT. 



THE HORSE. 



THE DOG. 



Canis familiar is. — Linn. 

 The Dog has been in a domesticated 

 state from time immemorial ; and from 

 him has sprung so great a number of va- 

 rieties, that it is perhaps impossible to de- 

 termine which now approaches nearest to 

 the original stock. The dog is mention- 

 ed as being a familiar animal nearly two 

 thou.sand years before the Christian era, 

 but the allusions to him in the Bible seem 

 to imply that he was formerly more san- 

 guinary and savage in his disposition than 

 at present. The dog is the only quadru- 

 ped wliich has been the companion of 

 man in every state of society, and in eve- 

 ry region and climate of the earth, and no 

 other animal manifests so great and so 

 faithful an attachment to his master as 

 this ; and this attachment seems to arise 

 from the purest gratitude, and truest 

 friendship. In works on natural history 

 we have no less thnn si.xty permanent va- 

 rieties of the dog named and described.* 

 in Vermont, each family in the country 

 usually fmds it convenient to keep one 

 dog, and very few have more tiian one. 

 In our villages a f^^w dogs are kept, (bet- 

 ter if fewer,) butas a person's standing in 

 society is not here, as in some countries, 

 indicated by the number of his dogs, the 

 dog mania has never prevailed to any 

 considnrable extent, and consequently lit- 

 tle pains have been taken to procure rare 

 and popular varieties. As the expense of 

 keeping a dog is generally much more 

 than the profit, and as direful consequences 

 are to I)e apprehended when dogs are nu- 

 merous, from the occurrence of hydropho- 

 bia among them, we should by no means 

 regret the reduction of the dogs in this 

 state to a moiety of their present number. 



THE DOMESTIC CAT. 

 Fclis catus. — Li.v.v. 

 Our domestic Cat is said by Cuvier to 

 have been originally from the forests of 

 Europe, where it is still found in a wild 

 state. The color of the wild animal is 

 grayish brown on the back and sides, with 

 dark transverse undulations, while below 

 it is lighter colored, and the inside of the 

 thighs and feet are yellowish. There are 

 three bands upon the tail, the inferior 

 third of wliich is blackisli. In the domes- 

 ticated state this animal varies, as is well 

 known, in the length and fineness of its 

 hair, but infinitely less so than the dog, 

 and is also much less submissive and af- 

 fectionate. The Cat renders essential 

 service by vlie destruction of rermm, and 



* Brown's Zoological Text Book, Vol. l,p 75. 



most families consider it to their advan- 

 tage to keep one at least upon their prem- 

 ises. Cats were formerly held in so high 

 estimation on account of their mousing 

 qualities, that in the lUth century laws 

 were passed in England regulating the 

 price of them. It was also enacted, that 

 " whoever stole or killed the cat that 

 guarded the granary of the prince, should 

 forfeit an ewe, with her fleece and lamb, 

 or as much wheat as, when poured upon 

 a cat, suspended by its tail, (the head 

 touching the Hoor,) would form a heap 

 high enough to cover the creature to the 

 tip of its tail." 



Order PACHYDERMATA. 

 This order is named from the thickness 

 of the skin of the animals which compose 

 it. They have two and sometimes the 

 three kinds of teeth. The four extremi- 

 ties are furnished with toes, variable in 

 number, and terminated with strong nails 

 or hoofs. They have no clavicles ; and 

 the organs of digestion are not formed for 

 ruminating. We have no animal of tliis 

 order existing in Vermont in a wild state, 

 and only three, the Horse, the Ass, and 

 the Hog, which have been introduced. 



Genus Equ7is, Lin'n.eus. 

 Generic Cliaracters. — Teeth 40 — Incis- 

 ors canines 1.1. grinders 6..G Grinders 

 furrowed on eacli side with flat crowns, and sev- 

 eral ridges of enamel ; hstwecn ihe canines and 

 erinders a vacant space. Upper lip capable 

 of considerable motion ; eyes larije ; ears rather 

 large, pointed and erect; feet with a single vis- 

 ible toe, covered with a strong hoof; tail with 

 long hair, or in some species with a tuft at tho 

 extretnily ; two inguinal teats ; stoftiach simple 

 and membranous ; intestines and cecum large. 



THE HORSE. 



E(juus cahaUus. — LinNj5;us. 

 This generous and noble spirited ani- 

 mal, next to the sheep and the ox, has 

 probably been the most useful .servant of 

 man. At what period he became domes- 

 ticated we have at present no means of 

 knowing. It must, however, have been 

 soon after the deluge, if not before that 

 event, as there is mention of the horse 

 and his rider in the book of Genesis near- 

 ly 2000 years before the Christian era. 

 The horse is the associate and assistant 

 of man in war, in the chase, and in tho 

 works of agriculture, of the arts and of 

 commerce. Although wild horses exist 

 at the present day in several parts of the 

 world, yet it is believed that there are 

 now no wild liorses, which have descen- 

 ded in a wild state from the original stock 



