172 A SPORTING PARADISE 



such hybrids, I have never been able to trace 

 their origin. 



"On a neighbouring ranch," he wrote, < there 

 is a most ill-favoured hybrid, whose mother was 

 a Newfoundland and whose father was a large 

 wolf. It is stoutly built with erect ears, pointed 

 muzzle, rather short head, short bushy tail, and 

 of a brindled colour ; funnily enough, it looks 

 more like a hyaena than like either of its parents. 

 It is familiar with people and a good cattle dog, 

 but rather treacherous ; it both barks and howls. 

 The parent wolf carried on a long courtship 

 with the Newfoundland. He came round the 

 ranch, regularly and boldly, every night, and 

 she would at once go out to him. In the day- 



this fact establishes that the wolf and dog are the same 

 species. He deduces the like conclusions from the same 

 fact with regard to the dog and the jackal. In corroboration 

 of this argument, we may add, Sir Everard Home mentions 

 the intestines of the dog and the wolf as of similar length, 

 while those of the fox are shorter. The length of the in- 

 testines is important with regard to the habits of the animal. 

 In those wholly of a carnivorous nature, such as the lion, 

 the intestinal canal is considerably shorter than in those 

 which feed even occasionally on vegetables. That excellent 

 magazine Animal Life has always opened its pages to any 

 interesting correspondence on the subject of hybridisation, 

 either in beasts or birds, and many photographs from life 

 have been reproduced of various hybrids, among which may 

 be included Mr. H. C. Brooke's wolf-dingo hybrids. 



