NATURAL HISTORY AND ORIGIN OF DOGS. 
525 
guay, that beef cannot be digested by its stomach, was in some 
measure verified by Dr. Parlet, who found, by experiments made 
upon a captive animal, that it rejected the raw flesh after deglu- 
tition, and only retained it when boiled. Kind treatment to this 
individual did not produce confidence or familiarity even with 
dogs. Its sight was not strong in the glare of day ; it retired to 
rest at ten in the morning, and again about midnight. In the dark 
the eyes sometimes shone like those of a true wolf. When let 
loose the animal refused to acknowledge command, and would 
avoid being taken till driven into a corner, where it lay couched 
until grasped by the hand, without offering further resistance. The 
aguara guazu, though not hunted, is exceedingly distrustful, and, 
having an excellent scent and acute hearing, is always enabled to 
keep at a distance from man ; and though often seen, is but seldom 
within reach of the gun. The female litters in the month of Au- 
gust, having three or four whelps. Its voice consists in a loud and 
repeated drawling cry, sounding like a-gou*a-a-a, which is heard 
to a considerable distance*.” 
We may here state the well-established fact, that canine animals 
do not bark at all in the natural state ; they only howl. Barking 
is a habit; we shall not say whether good or bad — it probably has 
both advantages and drawbacks — acquired under artificial circum- 
stances, and by no means natural. Even domestic dogs run wild 
speedily cease to bark, and take rather to a sharp prolonged howl- 
ing ; while, vice versa, the silent species of barbarous or semi-civil- 
ized nations ere long acquire the bark of our domesticated kinds, 
and, like many other creatures of a higher class, become so con- 
ceited of their new attainments, as not seldom to give tongue most 
vociferously when they ought to hold their peace. 
The unreclaimed animal above referred to has been called the 
Aguara wolf, although his head is somewhat smaller than the head 
of that animal, and its legs are proportionally longer. It is nearly 
four feet and a-half in length, and stands about twenty-six inches 
high. But there are other wild species in South America, called 
Aguara dogs , from their still greater resemblance to the old domes- 
ticated kinds of that continent. The latter were no doubt origin- 
ally derived from the former, although for a long period the native 
Indians have encouraged the increase of the European breed, 
which they name perro, from the Spanish term. These nations 
universally admit the descent of their own breed from the wild 
species of the woods. But within the last thirty or forty years 
the indigenous domestic dogs have been almost entirely superseded 
* Colonel Hamilton Smith, in Naturalist' s Library , Mammalia , vol. ix, 
p. 243. 
