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THE DOMESTIC DOG. 



CANIS FAMILIARIS. 



f As was declared in our PrefaceAit is by no means the object of this 

 work to describe the varieties of form and faculty which exist amongst 

 the now multitudinous breeds of the Domestic Dog. Nevertheless, 

 the companion of man must not be passed over altogether in silence ; 

 for, whatever may have been its origin, the Domestic Dog has every 

 appearance of constituting, together with the Dingo, one species now. 

 Although it may be true that certain breeds of dogs unite more readily 

 with their own variety than with other forms, it is none the less 

 abundantly evident that dogs of very different races breed freely 

 together, and that their offspring are perfectly fertile. But apart from 

 this matter, no attentive observer of the ways of animals can have 

 failed to note how, when dogs happen to meet, even though of the 

 most diverse breeds some toy lap-dog and some huge mastiff each 

 at once makes manifest its feeling that the other is a dog and a brother. 

 Nor will the spontaneous judgment of the ordinary observer fail to 

 accord with that indicated by the animals themselves. 



Assuming then, at least provisionally, that the dog, as we know it, 

 is to be considered as a distinct species, it is absolutely the most 

 wonderful species of animal known to us as regards the number and 

 diversity of the races which compose it. We have but to think of the 

 Pug-dog and the Greyhound, the Toy Spaniel and the Bloodhound, 

 the Turnspit and the St. Bernard's Dog, to recognize diversities of 

 bodily conformation exceeding those of any other species of Beast or 

 Bird known to us. 



As to the number of breeds, Professor Fitzinger * recognizes no less 



* See ' Der Hund und seine Eacen.' 1876. 



Y 



