MAMMALIA. 489 
There are upwards of thirty varieties of dogs enumerated by systematic 
writers; several of them are represented on our plates. Some we have 
already quoted in the above paragraph; the remaining ones are the Siberian 
variety, Canis familiaris sibericus (pl. 116, fig. 11), the badger dog, C. fam. 
vertagus (pl. 116, fig. 16), and the thin-snouted chase dog, C. fum. normanus 
(pl. 116, fig. 15). i 
The varieties introduced in North America are thus enumerated in the 
Fauna of the State of New York: 
Variety borealis (Esquimaux dog). Fur long, thick, and woolly beneath; 
top of the head and back black; nose, cheek, belly, and legs white; ears 
short and erect. 
Var. lagopus. White, with patches of blackish grey; ears pointed and 
erect; foot broad and hairy; tail bushy. 
Var. terre nove (Newfoundland dog). Head broad; nose blunt; ears 
long, soft, and pendulous. 
Var. canadensis. Black and grey, mixed with white; ears erect, long, 
shaggy. 
Var. nove caledonic. Spotted; body long; legs short, straight; ears 
erect. . 
The views of the older systematists as to the origin of the dog have been 
much modified by more recent investigations. It is now pretty well 
established that the different races of dogs in different countries are mostly 
descended from the wolves of their respective regions. This, at any rate, 
is certainly the case with the different breeds of Indian dogs found in North 
America, as the Esquimaux dog, the Californian, the Hare Indian, the Mis- 
souri Indian, &e. 
The wolves may be generally distinguished from the dogs by their 
straight tail. The common wo'f of Kurope, C. lupus (pl. 114, fig. 8), the 
most mischievous of all Carnivora, is found from Egypt to Lapland. The 
North American species amount already to four well established: the giant 
wolf (Lupus gigas), from Oregon and the Rocky Mountains; the common 
wolf (Z. occidentalis), from the plains of Missouri, and confounded some- 
times with the European wolf; the prairie wolf (Z. latrans) ; and finally, 
L. frustror, from Fort Gibson and vicinity. The Mexican wolf (LZ. meqi- 
canus) is of the size of the common wolf. In the marshes of South America 
exists a red wolf (L. jubotus).. The chacal or jackal of the Indies and 
Caspian Sea (Canis aureus) is represented on pl. 114, fig. 7: In Senegal, 
again, there is another, which stands higher and is provided with a sharper 
snout (C. anthus), allied to the chacal. 
The genus Vulpes (the foxes), so nearly allied to Canis, may be charac- 
terized by its pointed snout, and its upper incisors, less curved than in the 
genus Canis. The pupils of the eyes form a vertical fissure. The tail is 
long, bushy, and cylindrical. Foxes diffuse a fetid odor; they dig burrows, 
and attack only the weaker quadrupeds and birds. Their habits are 
nocturnal. The red fox, V. fulvus (pl. 116, jig. 1), and the cross fox 
(V. decussatus), are both found in North America, and considered by some 
as mere varieties of the same species. The prairie fox (V. velox) is smaller 
693 
