DOMESTICATED MAMMALS 83 



carrying passengers and for other heavy work. Though it has been 

 supposed by many people that the African elephants could not be tamed 

 and trained to work, it has been done. Experiments with them in the 

 Belgian Congo show that in plowing they are "fourteen times less 

 costly than plowing by tractor." 14 



Considering the world as a whole, the dog is more intimately as- 

 sociated with man and his domicile than any other domesticated ani- 

 mal. It is one of man's most faithful friends, and well deserves the 

 place it holds in our esteem and affection. While some breeds are mere 

 pets, others are very useful as shepherds, hunters, watchdogs and the 

 like, and as guardians of children. Dogs were used by the American 

 Indians as draft animals prior to the introduction of the horse by the 

 Spaniards. Dogs are even now often hitched to carts by white men in 

 various parts of the world, such not being an altogether unknown sight 

 in some of our American cities. The finest and best known example of 

 the kind is, of course, the sledge dogs of the Far North, which have 

 in recent years been bred up until some of them have become splendid 

 animals. In 1897 it was said that dogs were used more extensively as 

 draft animals in Belgium than anywhere else except the Far North, 

 and elaborate laws were in force relating to their use and care. 15 They 

 have also been used to a considerable extent in several other European 

 countries. 



The domestic cat is of value chiefly as a pet, though many of them 

 are good mousers and occasionally an exceptional one is a ratter. On 

 the whole it probably does at least as much harm as good, in the de- 

 struction of useful birds and otherwise. 16 



Guinea pigs and some rabbits are raised under control and may per- 

 haps be considered domesticated or semi-domesticated. Foxes, skunks, 

 minks and some other fur-bearing animals are raised in captivity, but 

 none of them can be called domesticated, though sometimes some of 

 them become great pets. 



"Phillips, Trained African elephants, Journ. Mammalogy, vi, 130-131, 1925- 

 Science news supplement to Science, April 6, 1928, p. x. 



"Johnson, Forest and Stream, XLIX, 491-492, 515, 1897; L, 13-14 1898. 



ia For a full investigation of its economic status see Forbush, The domestic cat, 

 Massachusetts Board Agric., Econ. Biol. Bull. No. 2, 1916. 



