170 THE DOMESTIC DOG. 



We are, however, far from asserting that all our Domestic Dogs have 

 sprung from a dog like the Dingo, which may have arisen as naturally 

 and as altogether apart from human action as the Wolf has arisen ; all we 

 would affirm is that such an origin is a possible one. But, as we shall 

 see, it is also possible that the Domestic Dog may have arisen from one 

 or more of the wild kinds of Canidcs which we now regard as differing 

 specifically from the Dog. /there is much to be said for this view, 

 is the one~that commended itself to Pallas, Ehrenberg, and De Blain- 

 ville, also to Hamilton Smith, and subsequently to Darwin, as it has 

 Since done to, .various naturalists of distinction. Others, amongst them 

 the English naturalist Bell, have held that all true Dogs are the modified 

 descendants of the Wolf. The general resemblance of some Domestic 

 Dogs to the Wolf is unquestionable notably the Esquimaux Dog, 

 which is often made to unite with the Wolf to increase the strength 

 and courage of the breed. 



The Wolf and the Dog were successfully bred together for four gene- 

 rations by Buffon ; and there are many instances of the production of 

 such hybrids *. We are not aware, however, of any recent evidence 

 that such hybrids are fertile inter se. The evidence appears to be 

 conflicting f. 



On the other hand, Dr. Julius Kuhnj has recently noted the fertility 

 of hybrids between a Jackal and a Dog, and this not only with the 

 parent species, but inter se. 



Professor Jeitteles contends that whatever otherwise may haVe been 

 the origin of the Dog, the Jackal and the Wolf (the variety Canis 

 pallipes) have been the parents respectively of the Domestic Dogs of the 

 Neolithic and Stone periods of Human existence in Europe, a view which 

 Mr. Blanford is disposed to accept . Prof. Jeitteles, oj^conrse, 

 grounds his opinion on a consideration of the skull and teeth. Such 

 evidence is to us profoundly unsatisfactory ; and therefore, while we 



* See Dr. Th. Noacke's article, Zoologische Garten, xxviii. Jahrgang (1887), 

 p. 106. 



f See Darwin, op. cit. vol. i. p. 32. 



J ' Die Stammvater unserer Hunde-Kassen : ' Vienna, 1877. 



Proc. Asiat. Soc. of Bengal (1877), p. 114. 



