DOGS OF PREHISTORIC MEN 
the crew in scenting and announcing danger. Savages, though rude and 
thriftless, are not fools in such matters, so that an accidental, yet effective, 
selection of the better dogs along various lines must have begun almost at 
the first. Thus certain varieties would be developed and maintained with 
more or less distinctness and permanence during the rude stage when all 
men were nomadic hunters, and when there would be no other domestic 
animal. Evidence of the truth of this supposition is at hand. Remains 
of dogs are mingled with human relics of the earliest Stone Age, and in the 
later Polished-stone period, represented by the Swiss lake dwellers. As to 
the origin of the two hundred or more specialized domestic breeds of the 
present time, some of which are quite modern while others date back thou- 
sands of years, little can be said with confidence. One of the latest dis- 
coveries is of the remains of a distinct canine species, allied to the dingo, 
which was domesticated in what is now Russia by men of Neolithic time, 
and perhaps contributed to existing varieties. 
“Tn the Roman period not only were sight hounds and scent hounds 
fully differentiated, but there were also various kinds of lap dogs and house 
dogs, although none quite like our modern breeds. Even as far back as 
about 3000 B.c., Egyptian frescoes show not only greyhound-like breeds, 
but one with drooping ears like a hound, and a third which has been com- 
pared to the modern turnspit; while house dogs and lap dogs came in soon 
afterward. Whether any of these are the direct ancestors of modern 
breeds, or whether all such have been produced by subsequent crossing, 
is a very difficult question to answer.”® 
The foxes so differ from the wolfish branch of the Canide 
in anatomy, especially of the skull, that Huxley made them a 
distinct group under the title “alopecoid”; but 
paleontology now shows a closer connection between 
the two than he knew of. Some zodlogists, as Mivart,’*’ set 
them aside in a genus Vulpes, or even separate them into several 
genera, but with Beddard we may include them in Canis. The 
type is that of a smaller, more agile and delicate animal than a 
wolf or jackal, with a broader skull and sharper muzzle, larger 
ears, a longer, more bushy tail, and usually longer fur. Weaker 
than its wolfish relatives, though endowed with great swiftness, 
and used to playing the double réle of hunter and hunted (for 
foxes are regularly chased by wolves and big cats), its brain has 
201 
Foxes. 
