230 



DESCRIPTION OF THE 



chin, reddish: those above the eyes, black: irides, red brown : naked skin 

 of the nose and lips and the nails, black: palate and tongue fleshy white, 

 with some stains on the former near the muzzle. Such is the male. The 

 female is rather paler and has hardly a sensible sprinkling of black-tipped 

 hairs on her back. She is rather smaller than the male, hasher cheeks less 

 tufted, her tail less bushy. She has connexion with the male once a year 

 only, in the months of November and December, and produces her young, 

 after (it is presumed — and, for the most part, determined by facts) the 

 usual period of gestation, in January and February. Though she has as 

 many as thirteen teats, it would seem that she brings forth no more than 

 from two to four whelps ; which are born blind, and covered with short 

 soft fur of a deep brown colour without any tinge of red. The red hue, 

 however, soon begins to develope itself, but does not entirely obliterate 

 the brown till after the milk teeth have been cast. In breeding only once 

 a year, and in producing a small number of pups, the Wild Dog agrees 

 with the Pdridr, or Chien de rue of India, and with the jackal: whence it 

 is probable that the double brood and numerous offspring at a birth 

 characterising our sporting dogs, are sheer consequences of their being 

 pampered and highly and regularly fed.* I shall conclude this account 

 of the Budnsu with a separate notice of each of his principal members and 



* One of the fancied distinctions between Canisand Lupus, upon whicli Buffon founded Iiis 

 assertion of specific difference in tlie two races, was, tliat the Wolf breeds only once a year, the Dog 

 twice. But so purely is the double brood of the domestic Dog the consequence of high and regular 

 feeding that the hard-faring Pariar, reclaimed though he be, essentially, yet breeds but once a 

 year. Facts like this ought to make one chary of creating specific differences founded on the ceco- 

 nomy of procreation, where the objects of comparison are not in a purely wild state. 



Domestic Dogs in general liave no more than ten teats— and in this point the Pariar agrees 

 with them. On the other hand, the Budnsu has as many as thirteen teats, a fact which he who is 

 inclined to separate the Budnsu from Canis will doubtless insist on ; see in the sequel, the remarks 

 on the dentition of the Budnsu, But what do I mean by thirteen, that is by an odd Jiumber of teats ? 

 1 mean simply that I have counted them ; and that, proceeding on tlie same principle of using 

 my own eyes instead of the spectacles of books, I have found several birds with an odd number 

 of feathers in the tail, independently of accidents. Yet I never found a hint of the kind in any work 

 on Natural History ! 



