tHE DOG. 



One of tlie most able of modem naturalists, Mr. Bell, ascribeB 

 to the dog and the wolf specific identity. The period of gesta- 

 tion — sixty-three days — is the same in both animals. One of 

 the most forcible arguments against the dog's wolfish origin is 

 the obliquity of the eyes of the latter compared with the former. 

 Mr. Bell, however, meets this objection by a reasoning decidedly 

 ingenious, if not conclusive. " It may result from the animals' 

 constant habit, for many successive generations, of looking for- 

 ward to their master and obeying his voice." 



Against the identity of the dog and the wolf, the difference 

 of disposition has been strongly urged. The last-quoted autho- 

 rity, however, is prepared for this objection, and rebuts it by 

 relating two anecdotes, — one on his own authority, and the 

 other on that of Cuvier. The first occurred in the gardens of 

 the Zoological Society, and was exhibited in the person of a she- 

 wolf, who came forward to be caressed, and even brought her 

 pups to be caressed also, whenever Mr. BeU, or any one whom 

 she knew, approached her den. Indeed, she killed all her un- 

 fortunate young ones in succession, by rubbing them against 

 the bars of the cage in her zeal to have them caressed by her 

 friends. The second happened in the Menagerie du Eoi, at 

 Paris, and no faithful dog could show more affecting instances 

 of attachment to its master, or distress on account of his ab- 

 sence, than did the male wolf, the subject of Cuvier's touching 

 account. "With aJl these analogous properties of form and 

 structure," continues Mr. Bell, " as well as of disposition, I 

 cannot but incline at least to the opinion that the wolf is the 

 ori|^al source from which all our domestic dogs have sprung ; 

 nor do I see, in the great variety which exists in the different 

 races, sufficient ground for concluding that they may not aU of 

 them have descended from one common stock. The turnspit 

 and the mastiff, the pug and the greyhound, are, perhaps, more 

 unlike each other than any of the varieties of other domestic 

 animals ; but if it be true that variation depends on habit and 

 education, the very different employment to which dogs, in aU 

 ages, have been trained, and the various climates to which they 

 have been naturalized, must not be lost sight of as collateral 

 agents in producing these different forms. The care, too, with 

 which dogs of particular breeds are watched with smal)»r ones, 

 tor the purpose of keeping the progeny as pure jite possible, 

 has, doubtless, its effect in promoting such distinctions. . . 

 Upon the whole, the argument in favour of the view which I 

 have taken, that the wolf is probably the origin of all the 



