CANID& 



55i 



The origin of the Domestic Dog, with its numerous breeds, 

 has been the subject of much controversy. Some naturalists 

 believe it to be a distinct species, descended from one that no 

 longer exists in a wild state ; others have sought to find its pro- 

 genitors in some one of the wild or feral races, either of true Dogs, 

 Wolves, or Jackals ; while others again believe that it is derived 

 from the mingling of two or more wild species or races. It 

 was probably the earliest animal domesticated by man, and few if 

 any other species have undergone such an extraordinary amount of 

 variation in size, form, and proportion of limbs, ears, and tail 



FIG. 252. The Jackal (Cams aureus). 



variations which have been perpetuated and increased by careful 

 selective breeding. The Dingo or Australian Dog is met with wild, 

 and also as the domestic companion of the aboriginal people. Dogs 

 were also in the possession of the natives of New Zealand and other 

 islands of the Pacific, where no placenta! mammals exist naturally, 

 on their discovery by Europeans in the last century. 



The second group includes the wild Dogs of the south-east of 

 Asia, described as Cyon, and distinguished by slight modifications 

 as C. rutilans, C. dukhunensis, and C. javanicus, and differing from 

 the above in wanting the small last lower tubercular molar. This 

 difference reduces the number of the teeth to the same as in 

 Fiverra, and is precisely paralleled by some of the species of the 

 extinct genus Cynodictis mentioned below. The muzzle is shorter 



