12 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



of this animal, numerous and disproportionate as they are, might 

 result from these united causes of themselves. This subject is 

 not more interesting than intricate, and the more I examine it, the 

 less am I satisfied with my own inferences. In one point only am 

 I certain I am right, and that is, that the dog, let him be an 

 original or a compounded animal, deserves our admiration. 



In the zoological arrangement of the great naturalist, Sir 

 Charles Linne, the Dog, Canis familiar is, is the first species of a 

 genus which comprehends animals whose exterior forms and 

 habits are considerably varied, but whose generic characters bear 

 a close resemblance to each other. The animals included are, 

 the Wolf, Can. lupus ; the Fox, Can. vulpes ; the Jackal, Can. 

 aureus ; and the Hyaena, Can. hycena. The generic characters 

 of this race are drawn from the number and the incisive formation 

 of the teeth. There are, in front, six pointed conical fore teeth 

 above and below, the laterals being more lobated and longer than 

 the others. The molar or grinding teeth are furnished with 

 pointed prominences, and in the intermediate space between the 

 incisor and molar teeth placed on each side, above and below, is 

 found a solitary incurvate tusk, from whence this tooth derives 

 its characteristic name of canine, wherever it is met with. The 

 specific characters, or those by which this great master distin- 

 guished the dog from the other members of the genus, are — the 

 head carinated or keel-shaped on the crown ; the lower lip hid by 

 the upper, indentated and naked at the sides ; tongue smooth ; 

 five rows of whiskers on the upper lip; nostrils turned outward, 

 into a crescent-shaped furrow ; upper margin of the ears reflected 

 and doubled posteriorly ; anterior margin three-lobed, with seven 

 or eight hairy warts on the face ; teats ten, six abdominal, four 

 pectoral ; feet subpalmated, toes furnished with curved claws, not 

 retractile. Of the wolf we have to remark, that the one be- 

 longing to Fred. M. Cuvier offered an example of the vast 

 power of man over even the most untractable of the beasts of the 

 field. It is well known that no spaniel was ever more attached 

 to a master than was this wolf to M. Cuvier, brother to the great 



