324 CLASS MAMMALIA. 



fortnight. They live ordinarily fourteen or fifteen years ; 

 but frequently suffer much from age and decay in their 

 latter days. Their size is indefinite; in the museum at 

 Dresden is a perfect specimen only five inches long. 



Notwithstanding the endless varieties of the Dog* and 

 the near relationship which numerous instances of the 

 mixtures of the breeds evince with the Wolf and Fox, the 

 Dog, properly so called, is always distinguishable by its 

 tail, which in all cases takes an arched direction, more or 

 less perfect in the different varieties ; and it is observed, 

 that all Dogs which have any white about them, always 

 have the tail tipped with this colour. 



Mr. Pennant cites Galen, Hippocrates, and Pliny, to 

 prove that the ancients were fond of the flesh of Dogs 

 as food. He states also that the New Zealanders and in- 

 habitants of the Society Islands eat them at the present 

 day. The Chinese are said also to be fond of this sort of 

 food, which is commonly sold in their markets ; and the 

 celebrated Captain Cook's recovery from a serious illness 

 at sea was much accelerated by the broth and flesh of a 

 Dog. 



It would be desirable to arrange the varieties of this spe- 

 cies in successive groups, as they diverge from the original 

 stock ; and much research has been made for this purpose, 

 from which different opinions have resulted as to the ori- 

 ginal type in a state of nature, which has been so remark- 

 ably excited to variety by domestication or other causes. 

 Some have considered the Dog as a domesticated Wolf ; 

 others think that it is a Chacal ; and many, observing that 

 Wild Dogs are found always to have the ears erect, have, 

 from this circumstance principally, concluded, that the 

 Shepherd's or Wolf-Dog is the original root. Since, how- 

 ever, the shape of the head has so much excited the atten- 

 tion of naturalists, it has been found that some Dogs cor- 

 respond more in this particular with the Wild Dogs than 



