SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 649 



been early reclaimed and trained to the chase, for which he is 

 so admirably fitted, and, perhaps, to have given origin to the 

 hunting dogs of very distant countries ; but there is nothing 

 in the characters of this, more than in those of any other 

 given species, that can enable us to conclude that it can have 

 produced all the dogs of the world. There is no more re- 

 semblance between the mountain hound of Nepaul, and the 

 sledge-dog of Greenland, than between the greyhound of Per- 

 sia and the terrier of England. 



Another class of Wild Dogs, which have received the name 

 of Dholes, are found in various parts of India, and, doubtless, 

 in other countries of the East. They seem to be of different 

 species, but have the general habits of the other Canidae. 

 Some of these are described as approaching to the conforma- 

 t ion of the Persian Greyhound, and as being very fleet. Some 

 of them have been domesticated, and employed in the chase. 

 Captain Williamson refers to their fleetness, but states that 

 they are not to be depended upon for coursing, being apt 

 suddenly to give up the chase when it is severe, and often to 

 prefer the chase of the goat or sheep to that of the hare. 

 He says that they are valuable in hog-hunting. 



The Dog appears with different characters in China and 

 the islands of the Eastern Seas. We have been rendered 

 familiar with this class of dogs by means of the Dingo of 

 New Holland, so called, it is believed, from a name given to 

 certain wild dogs found near the Gulf of Guinea. This ani- 

 mal has probably been carried from the adjoining countries 

 to this vast insular continent, because it differs from all the 

 other animals distinctive of it. Be this as it may, it has mul- 

 tiplied in an astonishing degree, and has become the pest of 

 the settled inhabitants. It is a wild and agile dog, very fleet 

 and fierce. It pursues the Kangaroo, and the flocks of sheep 

 which have now multiplied in the country, destroying them 

 in the manner of the Wolf. The Dingo has the habit of 

 burrowing, and does not bark in the wild state ; but by do- 

 mestication it learns to imitate the barking of domestic dogs, 



