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INTRODUCTION. 



Australia; there is, besides, a half reclaimed race 

 among the Indians of North America, and another 

 partially tamed in South America, which deserve 

 attention ; and it is found that these races, in diffe- 

 rent degrees, and in a greater degree as they are 

 more wild, exhibit the lank and gaunt form, the 

 lengthened limbs, the long and slender muzzle, and 

 the great comparative strength which characterise 

 the wolf; and that the tail of the Australian dog, 

 which may be considered as the most remote from 

 a state of domestication, assumes the slightly bushy 

 form of that animal. We have here, then, a con- 

 siderable approximation to a well known wild 

 animal of the same genus, in races which, though 

 doubtless descended from domesticated ancestors, 

 have gradually assumed the wild condition ; and it 

 is worthy of especial remark, that the anatomy of 

 the wolf, and its osteology in particular, does not 

 differ from that of dogs in general, more than the 

 different kind of dogs do from each other. The 

 cranium is absolutely similar, and so are all or 

 nearly all the other essential parts ; and to strengthen 

 still further the probability of their identity, the 

 dog and wolf will readily breed together, and their 

 progeny is fertile. The obliquity of the position of 

 the eyes in the wolf, is one of the characters in 

 which it differs from the dogs ; and although it is 

 very desirable not to rest too much upon the effects 

 of habit or structure, it is not perhaps straining the 

 point to attribute the forward direction of the eyes 

 in the dogs, to the constant habit, for many success 



