184 



THE P\RUH DOG. 



Chryseus pahariah. Nobis. 



Chien marron of the French at Pondicherry. 



It may be questioned whether the races of Pariah 

 dogs of India be merely a low degraded kind of 

 mongrels, descended from a nobler breed of domes- 

 ticated dogs, or be the offspring of an indigenous 

 wild species of the jungles. Naturalists in general, 

 preoccupied with the views which Buffon dissemi- 

 nated on this subject (views we shall have occasioi 

 to show the great and eloquent naturalist affirmec 

 and contradicted sometimes within a few pages), 

 have assumed without proof and often against pro- 

 bability, as a fact, that where wild and domestic 

 races nearly allied were foimd, the former were only 

 feral or bewildered descendants of the latter. In 

 the present case, however, the wild Pariah is found 

 in numerous packs, not only in the jungles of India 

 Proper, but also in the lower ranges of the Hima- 

 laya mountains, and is possessed of all the characters 

 of primeval independence, without having assumed 

 the similitude of wolves or of jackals, which syste- 

 matists seem to think must be the result of returnin<T 

 from slavery to freedom. There is nowhere any 



