Dogs and All About Them | Page 5

the end of that time they are able to eat half-digested
flesh disgorged for them by their dam--or even their sire.
We have seen that there is no authenticated instance of a hybrid
between the dog and the fox. This is not the case with the dog and the
wolf, or the dog and the jackal, all of which can interbreed. Moreover,
their offspring are fertile. Pliny is the authority for the statement that
the Gauls tied their female dogs in the wood that they might cross with
wolves. The Eskimo dogs are not infrequently crossed with the grey
Arctic wolf, which they so much resemble, and the Indians of America
were accustomed to cross their half-wild dogs with the coyote to impart
greater boldness to the breed. Tame dogs living in countries inhabited
by the jackal often betray the jackal strain in their litters, and there are
instances of men dwelling in lonely outposts of civilisation being
molested by wolves or jackals following upon the trail of a bitch in
season.
These facts lead one to refer to the familiar circumstance that the native
dogs of all regions approximate closely in size, coloration, form, and
habit to the native wolf of those regions. Of this most important
circumstance there are far too many instances to allow of its being
looked upon as a mere coincidence. Sir John Richardson, writing in
1829, observed that "the resemblance between the North American
wolves and the domestic dog of the Indians is so great that the size and
strength of the wolf seems to be the only difference. I have more than
once mistaken a band of wolves for the dogs of a party of Indians; and
the howl of the animals of both species is prolonged so exactly in the
same key that even the practised ear of the Indian fails at times to
discriminate between them."
As the Eskimo and Indian dogs resemble the North American wolf, so

the dog of the Hare Indians, a very different breed, resembles the
prairie wolf. Except in the matter of barking, there is no difference
whatever between the black wolf-dog of the Indians of Florida and the
wolves of the same country. The same phenomenon is seen in many
kinds of European dogs. The Shepherd Dog of the plains of Hungary is
white or reddish-brown, has a sharp nose, short erect ears, shaggy coat,
and bushy tail, and so much resembles a wolf that Mr. Paget, who gives
the description, says he has known a Hungarian mistake a wolf for one
of his own dogs. Many of the dogs of Russia, Lapland, and Finland are
comparable with the wolves of those countries. Some of the domestic
dogs of Egypt, both at the present day and in the condition of mummies,
are wolf-like in type, and the dogs of Nubia have the closest relation to
a wild species of the same region, which is only a form of the common
jackal. Dogs, it may again be noted, cross with the jackal as well as
with wolves, and this is frequently the case in Africa, as, for example,
in Bosjesmans, where the dogs have a marked resemblance to the
black-backed jackal, which is a South African variety.
It has been suggested that the one incontrovertible argument against the
lupine relationship of the dog is the fact that all domestic dogs bark,
while all wild Canidae express their feelings only by howls. But the
difficulty here is not so great as it seems, since we know that jackals,
wild dogs, and wolf pups reared by bitches readily acquire the habit.
On the other hand, domestic dogs allowed to run wild forget how to
bark, while there are some which have not yet learned so to express
themselves.
The presence or absence of the habit of barking cannot, then, be
regarded as an argument in deciding the question concerning the origin
of the dog. This stumbling block consequently disappears, leaving us in
the position of agreeing with Darwin, whose final hypothesis was that
"it is highly probable that the domestic dogs of the world have
descended from two good species of wolf (_C. lupus_ and _C. latrans_),
and from two or three other doubtful species of wolves--namely, the
European, Indian, and North African forms; from at least one or two
South American canine species; from several races or species of jackal;
and perhaps from one or more extinct species"; and that the blood of

these, in some cases mingled together, flows in the veins of our
domestic breeds.
CHAPTER II
THE ENGLISH MASTIFF
Of the many different kinds of dogs now established as British, not a
few have had their origin in other lands, whence specimens have been
imported into this country, in course of time to be so improved