NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 1 1 



his parentage derived from the wolf, and the comparison of the 

 anatomy between these two animals presents an argument of 

 some weight, and the more when, added to this, we take into the 

 account that the gestation of the wolf is, like the canina, sixty- 

 three days. The dingo has likewise been supposed a probable 

 source from whence the dog originated, but, in my opinion, not a 

 very likely one : some from the fox, others from the chactil or 

 jackal, and a few have regarded the hyena as his primogenitor. 

 (See Mr. Bell on this subject in his History of British Quad- 

 rupeds.) So infinitely varied are the scions of this great tree 

 become, that among those who, like myself, would be glad to ad- 

 vocate his claim to originality of formation, yet we are constrained 

 to admit the difficulty of concluding that all his varieties can have 

 sprung from one root. It is not easy to suppose that even the 

 powerful agencies of climate, food, and domestication, could have 

 operated diversities so striking and so multiplied ; but, on the 

 contrary, some maintain that he was originally formed in such 

 corresponding varieties as fitted him to inhabit the different 

 countries in which he was placed, and which opinion it is not easy 

 to controvert entirely. As regards the identity of the wolf and dog, 

 I confess that, though originally hostile to such opinion, I am not 

 equally so now. I would not willingly give up the opinion that 

 the dog, in his native character, is an original animal, and most 

 probably of one type ; but which type, yielding to the powerful 

 influences of change of temperature, of locality, of food, of treat- 

 ment, &c. has suffered vast alterations in its form and proportions, 

 but I would less willingly adhere to error. It may, it is true, be 

 asked whether the first dogs might not by intermixture with other 

 members of his genus have so diversified his kinds. The query is at 

 once curious and important, but at the same time it is one that I 

 am not ready to uphold, nor prepared to deny. But when we regard 

 attentively the effects produced by the powerful agencies already 

 hinted at, particularly that resulting from climate, and that brought 

 about by man when he assumes to himself the direction of the 

 sexual intercourse, I cannot but incline to think, that the varieties 



