Chap. I. DOGS : THEIR PARENTAGE. 15 



CHAPTER I. 



DOMESTIC DOGS AND CATS. 



ANCIENT VARIETIES OF THE DOG — RESEMBLANCE OF DOMESTIC DOGS IN VARIOUS 

 COUNTRIES TO NATIVE CANINE SPECIES — ANIMALS NOT ACQUAINTED WITH MAN AT 

 FIRST FEARLESS — DOGS RESEMBLING WOLVES AND JACKALS — HABIT OF BARKING 

 ACQUIRED AND LOST — FERAL DOGS — TAN -COLOURED EYE-SPOTS — PERIOD OF 

 GESTATION — OFFENSIVE ODOUR — FERTILITY OF THE RACES WHEN CROSSED — 

 DIFFERENCES IN THE SEVERAL RACES IN PART DUE TO DESCENT FROM DISTINCT 

 SPECIES — DIFFERENCES IN THE SKULL AND TEETH — DIFFERENCES IN THE 

 BODY, IN CONSTITUTION — FEW IMPORTANT DIFFERENCES HAVE BEEN FIXED BY 

 SELECTION — DIRECT ACTION OF CLIMATE — WATER-DOGS WITH PALMATED FEET — 

 HISTORY OF THE CHANGES WHICH CERTAIN ENGLISH RACES OF THE DOG HAVE 

 GRADUALLY UNDERGONE THROUGH SELECTION — EXTINCTION OF THE LESS IM- 

 PROVED SUB-BREEDS. 



CATS, CROSSED WITH SEVERAL SPECIES — DIFFERENT BREEDS FOUND ONLY IN 

 SEPARATED COUNTRIES — DIRECT EFFECTS OF THE CONDITIONS OF LIFE — FERAL 

 CATS — INDIVIDUAL VARIABILITY. 



The first and chief point of interest in this chapter is, whether 

 the numerous domesticated varieties of the dog have descended 

 from a single wild species, or from several. Some authors 

 believe that all have descended from the wolf, or from the 

 jackal, or from an unknown and extinct species. Others again 

 believe, and this of late has been the favourite tenet, that they 

 have descended from several species, extinct and recent, more 

 or less commingled together. We shall probably never be able 

 to ascertain their origin with certainty. Paleontology 1 does 

 not throw much light on the question, owing, on the one hand, 

 to the close similarity of the skulls of extinct as well as living 

 wolves and jackals, and owing on the other hand to the great 

 dissimilarity of the skulls of the several breeds of the domestic 

 dogs. It seems, however, that remains have been found in the 



r, lo^isl^^ J° SSil Mammals >' and concludes that the extinct parent 



S«f 1 on S '?** de Pal "' of a11 domesticated dogs came nearest 



InW- • rw t P ' f n , BWille > to the wolf in organization, and to the 



in Ins Osteograplne, Camd*,' p. 142, jackal in habits, 

 has largely discussed the whole subject, 



