310 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



pandemonium that ensued, scattered the few re- 

 maining dogs. 



"These innocent victims of the ravages of war 

 had a terrible experience during the rigorous Win- 

 ter of 1864-5. Their misery drove them to form 

 strange partnerships, and it was a common sight 

 to see them roving in bands of a dozen or more. 

 'Banish the dog from his kennel and you have a 

 wolf,' was illustrated in this case. In the course 

 of five or six months the country people for fifty 

 miles around were spinning marvelous yarns about 

 'them wild dogs from Atlanta.' " 



The dog belongs to the genus which produces 

 the wolf, the jackal and the fox. Tame dogs, of 

 course, lose many of the characteristics of these 

 animals; but when persecution and misery cause 

 them to relapse into their wild state they take the 

 appearance, the habits, and the tastes of wolves 

 and jackals. Such was notoriously the fact with 

 the Atlanta dogs. They lost every trace of do- 

 mesticity. They grew to enormous size, with sav- 

 age eyes and cruel-looking fangs. 



Occasionally a gang of these ferocious beasts 

 would swoop down on a farmyard, devouring 

 chickens and pigs, and attacking men when they 

 stood in their way. It took the liveliest kind of 

 shooting to drive them off. Sometimes they would 

 surround a lonely cabin and wait for the inmates 

 to come out. They even made raids into little 

 villages, forcing the inhabitants to shut themselves 

 up in their houses. The disappearance of many a 



