ii INTRODUCTION. 



" family " of Beasts, the family Canidcs. This family is one of several 

 others which together make up the " Order " of " Beasts of Prey " or 

 Carnivora, which, with some fifteen other orders, constitute the "Class" 

 of " Animals which suckle their young," the Class Mammalia. 



The other families which comprise the order Carnivora are : the 

 family of Bears ( Ursida), the family of Weasels and Otters (Mustelida), 

 the family of the Raccoon and its allies (Procyonida], the family of the 

 Civets (Fiverrida), and the family of the Cats (Felidte), in which last 

 family the character of a " Beast of Prey " appears to find its highest 

 and most developed expression*. 



From all these other families, the existing Canidce, as already said, 

 widely diverge, while amongst themselves they agree in structure to a 

 very remarkable extent, apart from the modifications which occur 

 amongst Domestic Dogs. 



Attempts have been made to divide the different species of the family 

 amongst upwards of a dozen genera, but we have found it impossible 



* It was on this account that, in a previous publication, we selected the Cat as our 

 type. The work referred to was designed to supply a want of which we had for a 

 long time felt the need, the want of a work, in one volume, designed to impart a 

 sufficient knowledge of the anatomy, physiology, classification, development, and geo- 

 graphical and geological relations of some animal of the highest class, to fit its readers 

 for the fruitful study of any group of animals. In this work (' The Cat : ' John Murray, 

 London ; and C. Scribner and Sons, New York) there will he found (p. 449) a state- 

 ment of the principles of zoological classification, and of the values of the terms 

 employed therein. At p. 392, zoological nomenclature is explained ; while at its com- 

 mencement (pp. 8-12) the different ways in which a living organism may be regarded 

 are set out, and the various sciences enumerated which are included within, or are 

 subsidiary to, the science of Living things, or Biology, for the study of which the work 

 was intended to serve as an introduction. The dermal structures, skeleton, muscles, 

 alimentary, circulating, and respiratory organs, the nervous system, the process of 

 development, and relations of the chosen type with the living and inorganic worlds, past 

 and present, are described in successive chapters. Obviously in a work such as our 

 ' Monograph of the Canidce' space cannot be devoted to making known matters of the 

 kind to readers as yet unacquainted with them. It will therefore be convenient, as 

 the occasion arises, to refer such readers to the pages of our preceding work, wherein 

 will be found the explanations thy may require. 



