Chap. I. THEIR PARENTAGE. 21 



held out a pitcher of water for other birds to alight on and drink. 

 Quadrupeds and birds which have seldom been disturbed by- 

 man, dread him no more than do our English birds the cows 

 or horses grazing in the fields. 



It is a more important consideration that several canine 

 species evince (as will be shown in a future chapter) no strong 

 repugnance or inability to breed under confinement ; and the 

 incapacity to breed under confinement is one of the commonest 

 bars to domestication. Lastly, savages set the highest value, as 

 we shall see in the chapter on Selection, on dogs : even half- 

 tamed animals are highly useful to them : the Indians of North 

 America cross their half-wild clogs with wolves, and thus render 

 them even wilder than before, but bolder : the savages of Guiana 

 catch and partially tame and use the whelps of two wild species 

 of Cants, as do the savages of Australia those of the wild Dingo. 

 Mr. Philip King informs me that he once trained a wild Dingo 

 puppy to drive cattle, and found it very useful. From these 

 several considerations we see that there is no difficulty in be- 

 lieving that man might have domesticated various canine 

 species in different countries. It would indeed have been a 

 strange Jact if one species alone had been domesticated through- 

 out the world. 



We will now enter into details. The accurate and sagacious 

 Eichardson says, « The resemblance between the Northern Ame- 

 rican wolves (Cants lupus, var. occidental) and the domestic 

 clogs of the Indians is so great that the size and strength of 

 the wolf seems to be the only difference. I have more than 

 once mistaken a band of wolves for the dogs of a party of 

 Indians ; and the howl of the animals of both species is pro- 

 longed so exactly in the same key that even the practised ear 

 of the Indian fails at times to discriminate them." He adds 

 that the more northern Esquimaux dogs are not only extremely 

 like the grey wolves of the Arctic circle in form and colour, 

 but also nearly equal them in size. Dr. Kane has often seen 

 m his teams of sledge-dogs the oblique eye (a character on 

 which some naturalists lay great stress), the drooping tail, and 

 scared look of the wolf. In disposition the Esquimaux dogs 

 differ little from wolves, and, according to Dr. Hayes, they are 

 capable of no attachment to man, and are so savage, that 



