194 
CARNIVORA. 
of different sizes. The gray matin-hound, trans- 
ported into the north, becomes the great Danish 
dog; and this, sent into the south, becomes the 
greyhound, of different sizes. The same, transported 
into Ireland, the Ukraine, Tartary, Epirus, and Al- 
bania, becomes the great wild dog, known generally 
by the name of the Irish wolf dog*. If these pre- 
mises be correct, it seems to follow, that these va- 
rieties of the dog are not of original creation, but 
result from climate, or other unknown causes, acting 
on the first species. 
In pursuing this observation in regard to animals 
which appear still more foreign from each other, w^e 
find, that the common dog breeds together with the 
wolf and the fox ; and, although zoologists and 
comparative anatomists have ascertained, that there 
is a certain similarity of physical structure in all 
' these animals, whence they have classed them in 
one genus, yet the wolf, the fox, and the dog, are 
very distinct animals, when not viewed scientifically. 
It has been already observed, that one or two species 
of the cats, as well as the whole genus of the hyaenas, 
are nearly as much like dogs as cats, or, in other 
words, are really very like both these genera ; and 
we may presume, not irrationally, that these inter- 
mediate species may sometimes breed, or may have, 
at some time, bred with either of the races they seem 
to approach. We have also noticed, that certain 
species of the cats approach nearly, if not completely, 
* But these assertions must be taken rather as matters of pro- 
bability than of ascertained truth. 
