The same phenomenon is seen in many kinds of Dog in the Old World. 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. There is
also a close resemblance between some of the Indian Pariah Dogs and the
Indian Wolf. Some of the domestic Dogs of Egypt, both at the present
day and in the condition of mummies, closely resemble the Wolf of that
country; “whereas the domestic Dogs of Nubia, and certain other mummied
Dogs, have the closest relation to a wild species of the same country
... which is only a form of the common Jackal.” Dogs have, moreover,
been known to cross with Jackals as well as with Wolves. Lastly, in
Africa, some of the natives assert that their half-tamed Dogs are
derived from Foxes; and the Dogs of the Bosjesman have a striking
resemblance to the black-backed Jackal (_C. mesomelas_), which, as we
shall see, is a South African variety.
These facts are so significant and so important that they in reality
leave only one difficulty to be settled, and that is the question of
voice. As we stated above, all domestic Dogs bark, while all wild
_Canidæ_ express their feelings only by howls. But the difficulty here
is not so great as it seems. Some domestic Dogs left on the island
of Juan Fernandez entirely lost the habit of barking in thirty-three
years, and a few individuals removed after that period only re-acquired
it very slowly; thus, domestic Dogs allowed to run wild forget how to
bark. On the other hand, Jackals, wild Dogs, and Wolf-pups reared by
bitches, readily acquire the habit. Thus the last stumbling-block in
the argument disappears, and we are forced to agree with Mr. Darwin,
from whom many of the above facts are taken,[96] 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 the 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.”
There is no animal so interesting as the Dog for the study of the
relation between man and the lower animals in the matter of instinct,
reason, conscience, and the like. As no animal has been so thoroughly
domesticated, and so systematically trained and educated, so none has
developed in the same degree those higher endowments which are often
considered as the exclusive attributes of humanity, such as reasoning
power, a sense of right and wrong, of property, and of number.
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