20 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



proved that these species are identical ; their distinctness has 

 been more than tacitly admitted. Yet they resemble each other 

 far more closely than any wolf does the dog. Has the dog, 

 then, been derived from each and all of these wolves, or has 

 the original wolf, origin alike of wolf and dog, been yet prop- 

 erly indicated ? Should not this fact be duly ascertained pri- 

 or to that in question ? Again, are there not numbers of wild 

 dogs are there not wild canines in South America, Austra- 

 lia, Arabia, India ? admitted on all hands to be essentially 

 distinct, which no naturalist has as yet attempted to deduce 

 from a common origin; yet are not these far more nearly 

 allied to the dog than to the wolf? Are there not likewise 

 several admitted species of fox ? Why not first clear up these 

 doubtful points, ere proceeding to such as are more remote 

 from the point at issue ? 



I likewise deny that the wolf and the dog will breed to- 

 gether in a stale of nature. In their native forests they clear- 

 ly will not, or the wild dog would not still remain distinct 

 from the wolf, whose lair is in the immediate neighborhood 

 of his own. Man's efforts and skill, combined with partial 

 domestication, may, indeed, induce a union between them, 

 but naturally they shun each other, and mutually exhibit a 

 strong natural antipathy. Nor will these animals the wolf 

 and the dog breed together, unless one of them, at least, be 

 thoroughly domesticated. How else have all attempts to pro- 

 duce a breed between the wolf and Australian dingo so sig- 

 nally failed ? 



Neither is the simple breeding together of animals, and the 

 fertility of'their offspring, a sufficient proof of identity of spe- 

 cies. Some of our uninquiring naturalists, who are satisfied to 

 follow quietly in the footsteps of their predecessors, may, doubt- 

 less, start at my assertion ; but I am not the less prepared to 

 maintain its truth. Mr. Hodgson (Proceedings of Zoological 

 Society, 1834) has shown that the capra tharal the goat of 

 Nepaul and the domestic goat breed together. The hunch- 

 backed zebu of India will breed with our common cattle, and 

 the offspring is prolific. Pallas has stated that in various parts 

 of Russia the sheep and the goat have bred together. The 

 Chinese and the European pigs, differing, according to Mr. 

 Eyton, in important osteological particulars, will do so like- 

 wise ; and in the " Proceedings of the Zoological Society, 

 1831," page 66, we find the same related of the hare and 

 rabbit. To this I may add, that the mule, the offspring of 

 the horse and ass, haar also produced foals. Now, as to fer. 



