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SECTION IX. DUSICYON- 



THE AGUARA DOGS. 



BuFPON, in reasoning upon the scanty data then 

 collected concerning the chien des hois and crab- 

 eating dogs, assumed that they were descended 

 from genuine dogs, although residing in the woods, 

 and by his own confession nerer yet entirely sub- 

 dued, because " they bred together," merely to sus- 

 tain his doctrine that all dogs were the offspring of 

 sheep-dogs * The races we have seen on the spot 

 did not remind us of shepherd's dogs, nor of any 

 other domestic species, excepting those of the resi- 

 dent Indians, who all admitted theirs to be of the 

 wild species of the woods. 



The group may be considered to represent, in the 

 west, the Thoes of the old continent, and collectively 

 to have the forehead more rounded in proportion 

 than their consimilars in the east ; the tail consists 

 of an imperfect brush, never reaching far below the 



* II y a plusieurs animanx que les habitans de la Gmane 

 ont nommes chiens des bois, parcequ'on ne les a pas encore 

 reduits comme nos chiens en domesticite constante, et ils me- 

 ritent ce nom pnisqulls s'accouplent et produisent avec lea 

 chiens domestiques. — Buffon, 



