NOTES ON WILD DOGS, Sfc. 495 



The dental formulaa of the two are as follows : — 



Cyon. 



incisors 



canines 



premolars . 



3 — 3 



3 ™ 3 

 1 — 1 



1 — 1 



4 — 4 



4 — 4 



2 — 2 



molars 



2 — 2 3 — 3 



Total 40 42 



In the next place, the female Ganis hasten mammse, or more rarely 

 eight, while Cyon has twelve or fourteen.* 



Finally, says Mr. Blanford, the muzzle in Cyon is proportionately 

 shorter, and the line o£ the face, when viewed from the side, is 

 slightly convex, instead of being straight or concave as in other 

 Ganidce. 



I will return to Mr. Blanford's account of the wild dog later on ; 

 I may now give an outline of what other writers have left on record, 

 adding a few comments here and there. 



* Darwin {Animals and Plants, i. p. 36) points out that the mammae in Canis " vary 

 from seven to ten in number ; Daubeu ton having examined twenty-one dogs, found 

 eight with five mammse on each side ; eight with four on each side, and the others 

 with an unequal number on the two sides." But if I understand him rightly, he does 

 not consider "the additional molar teeth" or "the number of mammse" as essential 

 characteristics of distinct breeds. He says : — " Some of the differences above enu- 

 merated are in one respect of little value, for they are not characteristic of distinct 

 breeds ; no one pretends that such is the case with the additional molar teeth or 

 with the number of mammae," &c. (page 38, Vol. i.). Does such refer to ' being of little 

 value ' or to ' being characteristic ' ? The sentence is rather obscme, but I think 

 it is elucidated by what follows: — "Those who have attended to the subject of 

 selection will admit that, nature having given variability, man, if he chose, could fix 

 five toes to the hinder feet of certain breeds of dogs, as certainly as to the feet of his 

 Dorking fowls ; he could probably fix, but with much more difficulty, an additional 

 pair of molar teeth on either jaw, in the same way as he has given additiona horns 

 to certain breeds of sheep," &c. 



