CLASS I. MAMMALIA: ORDER 5. CARNIVORA. 191 



" Dark green was the spot 'mid the brown mountain heather, 



Where the Pilgrim of Nature lay stretch'd in decay, 

 Like the corpse of an outcast abandon' d to weather, 



Till the mountain winds wasted the tenantless clay. 

 Xor yet quite deserted, though lonely extended, 

 For faithful in death, his mute favorite attended, 

 The much-loved remains of her master defended, 



And chased the hill fox and the raven away. 



" How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber? 



When the wind waved his garments, how oft didst thou start ? 

 How many long days and long weeks didst thou number, 

 Ere he faded before thee, the friend of thy heart?" 



The general zoological characteristics of this remarkable and interesting species are so familiar 

 that we need only describe them in outline. They arc plantigrade, and have non-retractile claws — 

 five on the fore-feet, and four on the hinder ones. They follow either by sight or scent, and 

 hunt singly, or in packs, according to the strength of the prey. The period of gestation in all is 

 sixty -three days; the number of young at a birth, from four to six : all are born blind. The ago 

 to which they live varies from six to twenty years. These are permanent and universal attributes ; 

 but, in respect to color, form, size, nature of the hair, and the instincts and aptitudes, there is an 

 almost endless variety. There are some differences of a more radical nature, as in the number 

 of the caudal vertebrae, some having more and some less. Some dogs, also, have five toes on the 

 hinder feet. The dentition is also variable in some wild varieties. 



Like man himself, the dog is divided into many races, and it is curious that the same doubts 

 which have arisen as to the specific unity of mankind, also exist as to this animal. Whether all 

 dogs sprung from one Adam, or from many, is as much a matter of dispute as whether all the 

 diverse members of the human family descended from the Gardener of Eden, or each race from 

 some unnamed and nameless progenitor. 



The prevailing opinion has been, that all the breeds of domestic dogs are descended from one 

 original stock, and that the variations which exist are the result of difference of climate and 

 condition ; but what that original stock was or is, has not been agreed upon. Some persons, and 

 among them several able naturalists, consider the wolf as the progenitor of the dog, or, in other 

 words, they hold that the dog is only a tamed and educated wolf. The reasons for this are 

 various. In the first place, it is found that the osteology of the two is nearly the same, though 

 the skull of the wolf is thicker and more arched ; the period of gestation and the relative length 

 of the intestines are identical ; many of their habits and instincts are similar ; the dog and the 

 wolf breed together, and their offspring is prolific, though to what extent is not ascertained. When 

 the dog becomes wild, he grows savage and wolfish in his nature ; and many wild dogs resemble 

 the wolf in appearance. The wolf, though generally fierce and savage, can be rendered gentle 

 and affectionate to man, as has been shown in several instances. A she-wolf in the Zoological 

 Gardens of London loved to be noticed by visitors, and she was so anxious to show her pups — which 

 had been littered in the menagerie — and have them caressed, that she absolutely killed them by 

 rubbing them against the bars of the cage. 



These facts, it must be admitted, make a strong case ; yet they are opposed by other facts even 

 more conclusive. In the first place, the dog appears in history— as we shall have occasion to 

 notice hereafter — from the earliest ages as a distinct species, and bearing generally his present 

 character. Several varieties, known at the present day, are distinctly represented in the 

 monuments of ancient Egypt. In that country, as well as in Ethiopia, at the remotest periods, 

 the dog had already been elevated to a kind of apotheosis. All early traditions represent the dog 

 and wolf as the very opposites of each other — one the friend and ally of .man, the other as an 

 enemy and a spoiler. 



All this may be considered somewhat remote and speculative ; but there are many other facts 

 which go to the same point. The marked difference in temper between the two races — in all 

 times and under all circumstances — must be considered as a weighty argument against identity of 

 species. The dog, too, is found in almost all countries and climates, while the wolf is comparatively 



