GENERAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



ii 



other hand, domestic dogs allowed to run 

 wild forget how to bark, while there are 

 some which have not yet learned so to 

 express themselves. Sir Harry Johnston 

 gives evidence of this in his description 

 of the tame dogs in the neighbourhood of 

 the Zambesi. The passage is not too 

 long to quote : 



" The dog of Central Africa is the usual 

 small fox -coloured pariah with erect ears 

 and jackal-like head. The tail, which is 

 generally long and smooth, is sometimes 

 carried over the back. Sometimes the colour 

 is mottled brown and white, or black and 

 white. Still, where these piebald tints are 

 found there is reason to suspect inter- 

 mixture with foreign breeds, the usual 

 African type of the pariah dog being a 

 uniform fox colour. I have sometimes 

 fancied I saw native hunters using a smaller 

 breed of dogs with short legs for terrier 

 work, but I have never actually ascertained 

 that there is such a breed. Dogs are used a 

 good deal for hunting small game. I have 

 never heard of their being employed, as in 

 South Africa, to tackle big animals and 

 bring them to bay. This African dog has 

 a certain attachment to its native master, 

 but it is always suspicious, furtive, and 

 cringing. Europeans they dread strangely, 

 but, though they growl angrily, they are 

 much too cowardly to bite. They have one 

 good negative quality : they cannot bark."* 



It is a reasonable inference that the 

 faculty of barking is acquired and improved 

 by association with civilised man, who has 

 certainly encouraged and cultivated it. 

 The Romans appreciated the sonorous bark- 

 ing of their hounds, as witness Virgil's 

 reference : 



" Vocat ingenti clamor e Cithceron 

 Taygetique canes." 



In mediaeval times in England it was 

 customary to attune the voices of a pack 



* " British Central Africa," by Sir H. H. 

 Johnston (1897). 



so that the hounds might be " matched 

 in mouths like bells, each under each." 

 Henry II., in his breeding of hounds, is 

 said to have been careful not only that 

 they should be fleet, but also " well-tongued 

 and consonous " ; and even so late as the 

 reign of Queen Anne it was usual to match 

 the voices of a pack. Thus we read in the 

 Spectator that " Sir Roger, being at present 

 too old for fox hunting, to keep himself 

 in action, has disposed of his Beagles and 

 got a pack of Stop-hounds. What these 

 want in speed, he endeavours to make 

 amends for by the deepness of their mouths 

 and the variety of their notes, which are 

 suited in such manner to each other, that 

 the whole cry makes up a complete con- 

 cert." 



Almost extinct now is this old care to 

 harmonise the song of the pack. But we 

 should not like our hounds to be without 

 music, and we have a healthy contempt 

 for the watch-dog who will not bark. Were 

 we to breed a strain of wolves and jackals 

 in our kennels, we should try to teach 

 them to bark also, and would probably 

 succeed. 



The presence or absence of the habit 

 of barking cannot, then, be regarded as an 

 argument in deciding the question con- 

 cerning the origin of the dog. This stum- 

 bling block in the discussion consequently 

 disappears, leaving us in the position of 

 agreeing with Darwin, whose final hypoth- 

 esis was formulated in the generalisation 

 that " it is highly probable that the domestic 

 dogs of the world have descended from 

 two good species of wolf (C. lupus and 

 C. latrans), and from two or three other 

 doubtful species of wolves namely, the 

 European, Indian, and North African forms ; 

 from at least one or two South American 

 canine species ; from several races or species 

 of jackal ; and perhaps from one or more 

 extinct species " ; and that the blood of 

 these, in some cases mingled together, 

 flows in the veins of our domestic breeds. 



