16 INTRODUCTION. 



portions of his temporal bones are placed higher, and 

 more anteriorly in the skull, than those of the dog. 

 The orbitary fossae are much more inclined, and his 

 teeth are not only proportionally longer and stronger, 

 but they also differ in their general form ' ; his cubitus 

 is longer and more obliquely placed, and his caecum is 

 very dissimilar. Exteriorly, his form is unlike that of 

 any known breed of dogs : with a tail always pendu- 

 lous, and a coat always coarse and shaggy ; under every 

 variety of climate, he is still a wolf. In habits he is 

 wholly carnivorous and predatory, nor does he ever 

 congregate except under the stimulus of excessive hun- 

 ger, in the pursuit of prey of stronger powers than his 

 own. Always ferocious, every attempt to reduce him 

 to perfect obedience has proved unsuccessful ; cruel, 

 craft>, and suspicious; a tyrant in power, and a cow- 

 ard in jeopardy ; he appears to have no latent or hidden 

 tinge of the qualities that so eminently distinguish the 

 dog; and if, as is asserted by naturalists, the female 

 wolf feels oestrum but once a year, and gestates about 

 one hundred days, then the individuality of the dog, as 

 far at least as regards the wolf, is established. 



The Fox, attentively viewed, will be found to present 



^ I am aware the domesticated dog can hardly be considered a fair 

 subject for this comparison. A life of art has unquestionably ope- 

 rated considerable changes on his whole frame ; and it is equally 

 true, that such wild dogs as have fallen under the examination of 

 comparative anatomists, have all presented a more sharp and pointed 

 ■visage, a more confined forehead, and ears more erect, than are ob- 

 servable in any of the cultivated breeds. To this I Iiave to remark, 

 that the comparison above alluded to has been made with specimens 

 of such dogs as have never been subjected to a life of art; or with 

 such as, having been only partially so (as the northern breeds), may 

 be supposed to present but little variation from the original, particu- 

 lurly in their bony structure. 



