130 BRITISH MAMMALS 



This is a claw attached to two or three minute phalanges, which 

 are not completely connected with the metatarsal bone of the first 

 toe. On the whole, however, it may be said that wolves and 

 dogs are five-toed on all four feet, and in this respect are more 

 generalised than the South African hunting dog, which has no 

 trace of the first toe on any of the feet. The arrangement of the 

 toes on front and hind limbs in the wolf and in most breeds of 

 domestic dog presents a feature which deserves some attention 

 (inasmuch as painters often misrepresent this) : the two middle 

 toes on each foot are pressed closely together, so that their claws 

 are almost touching. The tail is not nearly so long as in the 

 fox, but in most wolves and jackals is bushy. In the Asiatic 

 type of red dog akin to the dingo and perhaps in the Cyonoid 

 group the tail has a tendency to become smooth and short-haired, 

 and this tendency is met with in the development of breeds of 

 domestic dog, a mixture of all the Thooid and some Cyonoid 

 races. The pupil of the eye in the wolf and dog, as already 

 mentioned, contracts to a round point, and not to an elliptical slit. 



The present distribution of the various races of true wolf 

 comprises the whole of Asia except Arabia, Ceylon, Burma, Indo- 

 China, and Malaysia, and includes Japan ; the whole of Europe 

 except the British Islands and parts of the Continent where it has 

 been recently exterminated by man ; North America, from the 

 Arctic Sea to Mexico. No breed of wolf is found in North Africa, 

 Arabia, or Syria, its place being taken by several species of jackal. 

 In South America there are species of dog not far removed from 

 the wolf and the jackal, but offering some affinities to the fox. 

 One of these, Cams cancrivorus, possesses the archaic feature of a 

 third molar in the upper jaw. 



It is still an open question as to whether the Wolf group 

 originated in Asia or North America. On the whole, it may 

 be decided that Asia was more probably the focus of radiation 

 of the Dog genus — which is, perhaps, the most widely-distributed 

 type of mammal, as it is represented in every quarter and region 

 of the habitable globe, except the isolated continent of Antarctica. 

 The wolf, as a species, dates in European formations from the 



