22O MAMMALS OF PENNSYLVANIA AND NEW JERSEY. 



European or " Belgian " Hare. Lepus europaus Pallas. 



This animal, escaped from domestication, has now become scattered over 

 many localities in the northern half of New Jersey, especially in the parts 

 radiating from Columbus, where it first spread from the estate of Pierre Loril- 

 lard, according to common report. It is now found sparingly in the wild 

 parts of Camden and Burlington Cos., N. J., and is regularly hunted in Bucks 

 Co., Pa., during the game season. It is the species coursed in England by grey- 

 hounds and resembles in size and actions our American Jack Rabbits, but has 

 less extraordinary ears and relatively shorter limbs. It does not multiply 

 rapidly, as the European or English rabbit, Lepus cuniculus, so that its in- 

 crease in our limits may not be looked on as a serious economic problem. 



Domestic Cat. Felts domesticus Linnaeus. 



In some districts this domestic animal " takes to the woods " and reverts 

 to its feral condition. It is shot and trapped under these circumstances by 

 hunters, and often gives rise to fabulous stories of its nature, size and 

 rapacity. 



Domestic and Indian Dog. Cants familiaris Linnaeus. 



The remarks above made regarding cats apply even more fully to the dog. 

 These wild and often wolfish-looking dogs give rise and color to many a fake 

 wolf story in these days, as they always have in the past. 



Regarding the dog of the Pa. and N. J. Indians, found by the earliest dis- 

 coverers of America, there has been much written, after it was too late to 

 determine its relationships with the wolves and dogs- of the rest of the world 

 by an examination of specimens. But owing to its apparently hybrid char- 

 acters such examination would likely prove unavailing in the main question 

 whether the Indian dog was a dog at all, and if so, whence derived. I will 

 leave this question by quoting from B. S. Barton's remarks in the " Medical 

 and Physical Journal," vol. i, part 2, 1805, pp. i to 31, on " Native Amer- 

 ican and Indian Dogs." After stating (i) That the Indian dogs undoubtedly 

 existed in Pa. before the Swedes first planted their colony there, and (2) that 

 they had pointed, upright (fide Kalm ears like those of Sweden, Barton con- 

 cludes they must be a cross between the wolf and fox or wolf and some other 

 species of dog. He says (p. 14), "This species [Indian dog] or breed is 

 still [1805] preserved in the greatest purity among the Six Nations, from 

 whom the Delawares acknowledge that they received it. The Delawares call 

 this dog Lenchum or Lenni-Chum which signifies ' the original beast.' " 



Dr. Daniel G. Brinton in his " Lenape and their Legends," says the only 

 domesticated animal known to the New Jersey aborigines was a small species 

 of dog with pointed ears, which animal was called allum. These were not 



