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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



FRENCH WAR DOG : A COURSER WHOSE WINGED EEET SPURN THE EARTH 



A remarkable "flight" picture of one of the liaison couriers trained and used by the 

 French for emergencies when the telephone system in the front-line trenches was put out 

 of commission by enemy artillery (see pages 201, 239, and 257). 



Let us recall for a moment some of the 

 dogs we have noticed and see how widely 

 they differ in appearance. For instance, 

 compare a giant Saint Bernard, weighing 

 between 250 and 300 pounds, with a tiny 

 Chihuahua, which may barely tip the 

 scales at a pound and a half and which 

 can stand on the outstretched hand of a 

 lady. Or look at the tall, lithe wolfhounds 

 and greyhounds, built to move like the 

 winds of heaven, and then turn toward 

 the short-legged, crooked- jointed bassets 

 and dachshund, and you will surely smile 

 and probably laugh out loud. 



Compare a Newfoundland or, better 

 still, an Eskimo dog, whose thick, dense 

 coat can withstand even the rigors of an 

 Arctic winter, with a hairless dog of 

 Mexico or Africa, which looks cold even 

 rev the middle of summer. 



And we note that such striking com- 

 parisons can be made not only in the gen- 

 eral appearance of the dogs, but in almost 



every feature of them. We see ears that 

 stand straight up like those of the Ger- 

 man shepherd, ears that fall forward at 

 the tips, like those of the collie, and ears 

 long and pendulous, like those of the 

 bloodhound, which extend far beyond the 

 tip of the nose and sometimes touch the 

 ground when the animal is on the trail. 



These and the endless other compari- 

 sons of the many different breeds may 

 make us hesitate to accept the conclusion 

 which naturalists, led by Darwin, have 

 arrived at, namely, that all domestic dogs 

 are descended from a few wild forms, 

 namely, wolves, jackals, and possibly 

 dingos (page 194). Yet it seems that 

 the naturalists are correct in their conclu- 

 sions, and that the many varieties found 

 at the bench show are but so many proofs 

 of what Maeterlinck, and Cuvier before 

 him, point out, namely, that the dog is the 

 one animal which can follow man all over 

 the earth and adapt himself to every cli- 



