THE NEW BOOK OF THE DOG. 



many of our sporting dogs and terriers 

 when hunting in teams. 



A further important point of resemblance 

 between the Canis lupus and the Canis 

 fumiliaris lies in the fact that the period 

 of gestation in both species is sixty-three 

 days. There are from three to nine cubs 

 in a wolf's litter, and these are blind for 

 twenty-one days. They are suckled for two 

 months, but at the end of that time they 

 are able to eat half-digested flesh disgorged 

 for them by their dam — or even their sire. 



We have seen that there is no authenti- 

 cated instance of a hybrid between the dog 

 and the fox. This is not the case with the 

 dog and the wolf, or the dog and the jackal, 

 all of which can interbreed. Moreover, 

 their offspring are fertile. Pliny is the 

 authority for the statement that the Gauls 

 tied their female dogs in the woods that 

 they might cross with wolves. The Es- 

 quimau dogs are not infrequently crossed 

 with the grey Arctic wolf, which they so 

 much resemble, and the Indians of America 

 were accustomed to cross their half-wild 

 dogs with the coyote to impart greater 

 boldness to the breed. Tame dogs living 

 in countries inhabited by the jackal often 

 betray the jackal strain in their litters, and 

 there are instances of men dwelling in 

 lonely outposts of civilisation being molested 

 by wolves or jackals following upon the 

 trail of a bitch in season. 



These facts lead one to refer to the 

 familiar circumstance that the native dogs 

 of all regions approximate closely in size, 

 coloration, form, and habit to the native 

 wolf of those regions. Of this most import- 

 ant circumstance there are far too many 

 instances to allow of its being looked upon 

 as a mere coincidence. Sir John Richard- 

 son, writing in 1829,* observed that " the 

 resemblance between the North American 

 wolves (Canis lupus, var. occidentalis) and 

 the domestic dog of the Indians is so great 

 that the size and strength of the wolf seems 

 to be the only difference. I have more 

 than once mistaken a band of wolves for 

 the dogs of a party of Indians ; and the 

 howl of the animals of both species is pro- 

 * "Fauna Boreali Americana." 



longed so exactly in the same key that 

 even the practised ear of the Indian fails 

 at times to discriminate between them." 



As the Esquimau and Indian dogs re- 

 semble the North American wolf (C. lupus), 

 so the dog of the Hare Indians, a very 

 different breed, resembles the prairie wolf 

 (C. latrans). Except in the matter of 

 barking, there is no difference whatever 

 between the black wolf-dog of the Indians 

 of Florida and the wolves of the same 

 country. The Chow-Chow bears a striking 

 family likeness to some of the wolves of 

 China, and there is also a close resemblance 

 between some of the Indian pariah dogs 

 and the Indian wolf. The same phenom- 

 enon is seen in many kinds of European 

 dogs. The Shepherd Dog of the plains of 

 Hungary is white or reddish-brown, has 

 a sharp nose, short erect ears, shaggy coat, 

 and bushy tail, and so much resembles a 

 wolf that Mr. Paget, who gives the de- 

 scription, says he has known a Hungarian 

 mistake a wolf for one of his own dogs. 

 Many of the dogs of Russia, Lapland, 

 and Finland are comparable with the 

 wolves of those countries. Some of the 

 domestic dogs of Egypt, both at the present 

 day and in the condition of mummies, are 

 wolf-like in type, and the dogs of Nubia 

 have the closest relation to a wild species 

 of the same region, which is only a form 

 of the common jackal. Dogs, it may again 

 be noted, cross with the jackal as well as 

 with wolves, and this is frequently the case 

 in Africa, as, for example, in Bosjesmans, 

 where the dogs have a marked resemblance 

 to the black-backed jackal (C. mesomelas), 

 which is a South African variety. 



These circumstances are so significant 

 that they leave only one difficulty to be 

 settled, and that is the question of voice.- 

 It has long been believed that the one in- 

 controvertible argument against the lupine 

 relationship of the dog is the fact that 

 all domestic dogs bark, while all wild 

 CanidcB express their feelings only by 

 howls. But the difficulty here is not so 

 great as it seems, since we know that 

 jackals, wild dogs, and wolf pups reared by 

 bitches readily acquire the habit. On the 



