DOGS. 71 



and resemble foxes. They are silent, if not dumb, and 

 appear to congregate in families rather than packs. 

 They have a peculiar propensity to steal and secrete, 

 without any apparent object for so doing. 



Colonel Hamilton Smith, the able writer on dogs, 

 does not acknowledge some of these wi!d races, but 

 thinks they are what he calls feral, or domestic dogs 

 which have regained their . liberty, and have subsisted 

 for many generations on their own intelligence. To 

 these he refers the Natolians and Aguaras ; but there 

 can be no doubt concerning the feral nature of the dog 

 of St. Domingo, which descends from the hounds trained 

 to hunt human beings by the Spaniards, and which are 

 supposed to have regained their liberty in the woods of 

 Haiti. It is of these dogs the stories are told concern- 

 ing runaway negroes, and which were taught by means 

 of raw food, placed in stuffed representations of human 

 beings. They are very handsome creatures, carrying 

 their heads with an air of conscious superiority. They 

 follow a track rapidly, and in complete silence ; they, 

 however, always seize their victims. 



A contrast to the feral dog of St. Domingo, is the 

 Alco of Mexico, with its small head, short neck, and 

 very thick body. Those of the Pampas having assumed 

 the shapes of all the dogs transported from Europe, 

 have now settled into what may be called curs. They 

 are very bold, very sagacious, are not inimical to men, 

 but destructive to the young animals in herds. They 

 live in burrows, and if brought back to domesticity, arc 

 valuable for their courage and highly developed senses 



In various cities exist herds of dogs who do not own 

 any masters, who infest the streets in packs, and who 

 are at once the scavengers, the purifiers, and the greatest 



