dogs: ancient and modern. 405 



and the nature of its food) have been regarded as most important 

 in determining its zoological position,* and thus, this grouping 

 (artificial or arbitrary as it may at first sight appear) really indi- 

 cates in the case of each of these three sections, the possession 

 by its members of certain characters in common which link them, 

 as it were, together, and which being well marked are easily 

 recognisable. 



It will be seen, then, that the section Cynoidea holds a posi- 

 tion intermediate between the ^luroidea and the Arctoidea ; 

 its affinities with the former section, through the Hyaenas, being 

 indicated by Lijcaon pictios, the Cape Hunting-dog, which pos- 

 sesses much resemblance to a Hyaena, and its relations towards 

 the latter section in the direction of the Mustelidce being indicated 

 by that curious aberrant canine form the Bush-dog of Guiana, 

 Icticyon venaticus. 



This being the position of the Canidce, then, in the order 

 Carnivora, let us see what are the members of this family now 

 existing in a wild state, and what their geographical distribution. 

 From a general review of these existing forms it would 

 appear that they may be conveniently grouped into perhaps eight 

 genera :— I. Canis, to include Wolves and Jackals ; II. Cyon, the 

 wild dogs, like those of India and Sumatra; III. Vulpes, the'true 

 Foxes; IV. Fennecus, the Fennec-Foxes, remarkable for their 

 abnormally large ears; V. Otocyon, represented by a single 

 species, the South-African large-eared Fox; VI. Lycaon, the 

 Cape Hunting-dog; VII. mjctereutes, the Racoon-like dog of 

 Eastern Siberia and Japan ; and VIII. Icticyon, the Musteline- 

 looking Bush-dog of British Guiana. 



The last four of these genera, it will be seen, contain each 

 but a single representative species. Of the Fennecs four species 

 have been described, although it is by no means certain that they 

 are distinct, for some of the differences noticed may be attributed 

 to the altered conditions of life under which the so-called different 

 species have had to live. 



Of the wild dogs {Cyon), which have a somewhat different 

 dentition to the typical Canis, four species also are recognised— 

 two inhabiting India, a third the Altai Mountains, and the fourth 



* See Prof. Huxley on the cranial and dental characters of the CanidcB 

 Proc. Zool. Soc. 1880, p. 238. ' 



