Okap. I. DOGS : THEIK PARENTAGE. ] 5 



CHAPTER I. 



DOMESTIC DOGS AND CATS, 



4NCIENT VARIETIES OF THE DOG RESEMBLANCE OF DOMESTIC D0G3 IN TARIOCS 



COUNTRIES TO NATIVE CANINE SPECIES — ANIMALS NOT ACQUAINTED WITH 

 MAN AT FIRST FEARLESS — DOGS RESEMBLING V^'OLVES AND JACKALS — HABIT 

 OF BARKING ACQUIRED AND LOST — FERAL DOGS — TAN-COLOURED EYE-SPOT? 

 — PERIOD OF GESTATION — OFFENSIVE ODOUR — FERTILITY OP THE RACES WHEN 

 CROSSED — DIFFERENCES IN THE SEVERAL RACES IN PART DUE TO DESCENT 

 FROM DISTINCT SPECIES — DIFFERENCES IN THE SKULL AND TEETH — DIFFER- 

 ENCES IN THE BODY, IN CONSTITUTION — FEW IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES 

 HAVE BEEN FIXED BY SELECTION — DIRECT ACTION OF CLIMATE — WATER- 

 DOGS WITH PALMATED FEET — HISTORY OF THE CHANGES WHICH CERTAIN 

 ENGLISH RACES OF THE DOG HAVE GRADUALLY UNDERGONE THROUGH 

 SELECTION — EXTINCTION OF THE LESS IMPROVED SUB-BREEDS. 



CATS, CROSSED WITH SEVERAL SPECIES — DIFFERENT BREEDS FOUND ONLY IN 

 SEPARATED COUNTRIES — DIRECT EFFECTS OF THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE — ■ 

 FERAL CATS — INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY. 



Thi<: first and chief point of interest in this chapter is, whether 

 the numerous domesticated varieties of the dog have descended 

 from a single wild species, or from several. Some authors 

 believe that all have descended from the wolf, or from the 

 jackal, or from an unknown and extinct species. Others again 

 believe, and this of late has been the favourite tenet, that they 

 have descended from several species, extinct and recent, more 

 or less commingled together. We shall probably never be able 

 to ascertain their origin with certainty. Palaeontology ^ does 

 not throw much light on the question, owing, on the one 

 hand, to the close similarity of the skulls of extinct as well 

 as living wolves and jackals, and owing, on the other hand, to 



1 Owen, ' British Fossil Mammals,' habits. See also Boyd Dawkins, 



pp.123 to 133. Pictet's ' Traits de 'Cave Hunting,' 1874, p. 131, &c., 



Pal.,' 1853, torn. i. p. 202. De Blain- and his other publications. Jeitteles 



ville, in his ' Osteographie, Canida;,' has discussed in great detail the 



p. 142, has largely discussed the character of the breeds of pre-historic 



whole subject, and concludes that dogs : ' Die vorgeschichtlichen Alter- 



the extinct parent of all domesticated thiimer der Stadt OlmUtz,' II. Theii, 



dogs came nearest to the wolf in 1872, p. 44 to end, 

 organization, and to the jackal in 



