88 INTRODUCTION. 
Now, adverting to the circumstance of the fertility 
of the mixed breed between wolf and dog (one cer- 
tainly of very great weight), the experiments made 
by Buffon should have been taken into the account ; 
for that celebrated naturalist, after denying that 
they would commix, lived to prove that they bred, 
and the offspring of the wolf and dog to be prolific 
indeed, but that im four generations, the Hybrid 
type, though not obliterated, had not passed into a 
domesticated race. If wolves and dogs commixed 
breed readily, how does it happen that several races 
of true dogs, such as mastiffs, bulldogs, and particu- 
larly the Irish greyhound, breed so imperfectly with 
their own variety of species that it requires much 
attention to preserve the race ? 
If the Australian Dingo be a true dog, what is 
the cause that experiments to make it breed with 
well selected individuals of the domestic species 
have failed? At least, this was the case at Paris.* 
Finally, if the facility of breedmg together were 
admitted, would it establish identity of species? It 
is asserted, and we know of no contradiction, that 
the older breeds of sheep in Russia have very coarse 
fleeces, because they breed promiscuously with 
goats. Should this be a fact, and we believe it 
rests on the authority of Pallas, would the inference 
of the identity of the two species be established ? 
* We believe Sir John Jamieson, who made similar expe- 
riments in New Holland, was not more suceessful; but I find 
that Mr Cunningham mentions a breed of Hybrids of the race 
to be now established in New Holland. 
