130 



CANIDJ3. 



Fig. 48. 



part of the forehead behind the orbits a little narrower 

 and flatter, the occipito-sagittal crest longer and loftier, 

 and the teeth, especially the canines, proportionally larger. 

 Figure 48 shows one of the fossil 

 canines from Oreston, of the natural 

 size. But, adds Cuvier, these shades of 

 difference are so slight, that they are 

 frequently more marked between two 

 individual dogs or between two wolves ; 

 and that he can hardly avoid concluding 

 as Daubenton had done, that the Dog 

 and the Wolf are of the same species.* 

 M. de Blainville, who gives the 

 result of a very elaborate and detailed 

 comparison of the teeth and bones 

 of the Wolf and Dog in his " Osteogra- 

 phie," concludes by invalidating even 

 the slight shades of distinction admitted 

 by Daubenton and Cuvier in the configuration of the cranium, 

 and cites the wild races of the Dog, and especially the 

 Dingo of New Holland, as indistinguishable from the 

 Wolf by the cranial characters which his predecessors had 

 pointed out. 



* Cuvier, loc. cit. p. 458. He does not cite the work containing this alleged 

 opinion of Daubenton. In the great " Histoire Naturelle," the words of the pains- 

 taking coadjutor of the eloquent Buffon, are " Plus j'ai observe les chiens et les 

 loups, soit a 1'exterieur, soit a 1'interieure, plus je les ai compares les uns aux 

 autres, tant les males que les femelles, plus j'aurois et6 porte a conclure de la res- 

 semblance qui est dans leur conformation, qu'ils sont de la meme espece, si M. 

 Buffon n'avoit tente inutilement de faire accoupler le chien avec la louve." Tom. 

 vii. p. 54. The success of the experiment which Daubenton seems to have 

 thought essential to establish the conclusion of the specific identity of the Wolf and 

 Dog was subsequently obtained by John Hunter, who carried the experiment a 

 step further in regard to the hybrid offspring. See his " Observations tending to 

 show that the Wolf, Jackall, and Dog, are all of the same species." Hunter's 

 Works, Palmer's Edition, vol. iv. and my note at p. 324. 



Canine, nat. size. 



