32 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



continually. To the hyena as a parent of any variety of the dog, 

 although the notion is entertained by Pallas as the origin mastiflF, it 

 may be objected as most unlikely : the hyena is of a totally distinct 

 genus, and the union, if effected and productive, could not, by the 

 usual laws of nature, have become perpetuated. Guldenstaedt at- 

 tributes some of our dogs to the chacal or jackal, and details their 

 proofs of identity!. Pallas, too, is of a similar opinion ; and also 

 asserts, that the Kalmuc dogs are neither more nor less than 

 jackals^, and the remainder he appears to think are derived from 

 spurious sources'^. Mr. Wilson's opinion, however, seems to lead 

 to a supposition that the chacal may be regarded as the true wild 

 dog, and, as such, the true source probably of most of our domesti- 

 cated dogs. Fortunately for the claim of the dog to the honour of 

 an original and specific formation, this theory, otherwise very 

 specious from the great similarity of structure between the two 

 animals, loses its principal force, as is indeed admitted by Mr. W., 

 when we reflect that this origin cannot apply to the wild dogs of 

 New Holland, nor to those of North and South America, where, 

 notwithstanding the assertions of Father Gili, Humboldt has clearly 

 proved the dog to have been known long before the first visits of 

 Europeans. In these countries, at least, we must look for another 

 origin for the dog ; which Pallas has fancifully but erroneously 



' " Oderat anum alterius ; cohaeret copula junctus." — Nov. Comment. Pc- 

 trop. vol. XX, p. 450, tab. xi. 



' Homini facillimse adsuescit nunquam, uti lupus et vulpes cicurati, infidi 

 animi signa edens, lususve cruentans ; canes non fugit sed ardentur appetit, 

 cum lisque colludit, ut plane nullum sit dubium cum iisdem generaturum si 

 tentetur experimentum. Vocem desiderii caninae simillimam habet ; homini 

 Cauda eodem modo abblanditur, et in dorsum provolvi atque manibus demul- 

 ceri amat. Ipse quoque ululatus ejus, cum latratu canum ejulabundo mag- 

 num habet analogiam. Ergo dubium vix esse puto, hominis speciem, in 

 eadem cum lupo aureo climate naturaliter inquilinam, antiquitus hujus catulis 

 cicuratis domesticos sibi educasse canes, quorum naturalis instinctus jam ho- 

 mini, quem feri non multum timent, amicus, et in venationem pronus erat. — 

 Spicil. Zool. fasc. xi,page l,note. 



^ Memoir sur la Variation des Animaux. — Acta. Acad. Petrop. 1780. 



