THE DOG KIND. 



317 



consequently, have less power. Thus, for 

 instance, I can squeeze any thing more forci- 

 bly between my thumb and fore-finger, where 

 the distance is greater, than between any other 

 two fingers, whose distance from each other is 

 less. 



This animal is capable of reproducing at the 

 age of twelve months," and goes nine weeks 

 with young, and lives to about the age of 

 twelve. Few quadrupeds are less delicate in 

 their food ; and yet there are many kinds of 

 birds which the dog will not venture to touch. 

 He is even known, although in a savage state, 

 to abstain from injuring some, which one 

 might suppose he had every reason to oppose. 

 The dogs and the vultures which live wild 

 about Grand Cairo in Egypt, (for the Maho- 

 metan law has expelled this useful animal from 

 human society,) continue together in a very 

 sociable and friendly manner." As they are 

 both useful in devouring such carcasses as 

 might otherwise putrefy, and thus infect the 

 air, the inhabitants supply them with provi- 

 sions every day, in order to keep them near 

 the city. Upon these occasions, the quadru- 

 peds and birds are often seen together, tearing 

 the same piece of flesh, without the least en- 

 mity ; on ihe contrary, they are known to live 

 together with a kind of affection, and bring up 

 their young in the same nest. 



Although the dog is a voracious animal, yet 

 he can bear hunger for a very long time. We 

 have an instance, in the Memoirs of the Aca- 

 demy of Sciences, of this kind, in which a 

 bitch that had been forgotten in a country- 

 house, lived forty days, without any other 

 nourishment than the wool of a quilt which 

 she had torn in pieces. It should seem that 

 water is more necessary to the dog than food ; 

 he drinks often, though not abundantly ; and 

 it is commonly believed, that when abridged in 

 water, he runs mad. This dreadful malady, 

 thp consequences of which are so well known, 

 is the greatest inconvenience that results from 

 the keeping this faithful domestic. But it is a 



a To this description I will beg leave to add a few parti- 

 culars from Linnicus, as I find them in the original. " Vo- 

 initua graitiiua purgatur ; cacat supra lapidem. Album 

 grtecum antisepticum summum. Mingit ad latus (this, 

 however, not till the animal is nine months old) cum 

 hospite sacpe centies. Odorat anum alterius. Procis 

 rixautibus orudelis. Menstruans coit cum variis. Mordet 

 ilia illos. Coliaret copula junctus." 



'> Hasselquist Her. Paltestin. p. 232 



disorder by no means so frequent as the terrors 

 of the timorous would suppose ; the dog has 

 been often accused of madness, without a fair 

 trial ; and some persons have been supposed to 

 receive their deaths from his bite, when either 

 their own ill-grounded fears, or their natural 

 disorders, were the true cause. 



THE WOLF. 



THE dog and the wolf are so very much 

 alike internally, that the most expert anato- 

 mists can scarce perceive the difference ; and 

 it may be asserted also, that, externally, some 

 dogs more nearly resemble the wolf than they 

 do each other. It was this strong similitude 

 that first led some naturalists to consider them 

 as the same animal, and to look upon the wolf 

 as the dog in its state of savage freedom : how- 

 ever, this opinion is entertained no longer; the 

 natural antipathy those two animals bear to 

 each other ; the longer time which the wolf 

 goes with young than the dog, the one going 

 over a hundred days, and the other not quite 

 sixty ; the longer period of life in the former 

 than the latter, the wolf living twenty years, 

 the dog not fifteen ; all sufficiently point out a 

 distinction, and draw a line that must for ever 

 keep them asunder. 



The wolf, from the tip of the nose to the in- 

 sertion of the tail, is about three feet seven 

 inches long, and about two feet five inches 

 high ; which shows him to be larger than our 

 great breed of mastiffs, which are seldom found 

 to be above three feet by two. His colour is a 

 mixture of black, brown, and gray, extremely 

 rough and hard, but mixed towards the roots 

 with a kind of ash-coloured fur. In comparing 

 him to any of our well-known breed of dogs, 

 the great Dane or mongrel grayhound, for in- 

 stance, he will appear to have the legs shorter, 

 the head larger, the muzzle thicker, the eyes 

 smaller, and more separated from each other, 

 and the ears shorter and straighter. He ap- 

 pears in every respect stronger than the dog ; 

 and the length of his hair contributes still more 

 to his robust appearance. The feature which 

 principally distinguishes the visage of the wolf 

 from that of the dog is the eye, which opens 

 slantingly upwards in the same direction with 

 the nose ; whereas, in the dog, it opens ; more 

 at right angles with the nose, as in man. The 



3D 



