Turning to the Old World, some European dogs closely resemble the wolf;
thus 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 this description, says he
has known a Hungarian mistake a wolf for one of his own dogs. Jeitteles,
also, remarks on the close similarity of the Hungarian dog and wolf.
Shepherd dogs in Italy must anciently have closely resembled wolves, for
Columella (vii. 12) advises that white dogs be kept, adding, "pastor album
probat, ne pro lupo canem feriat." Several accounts have been given of dogs
and wolves crossing naturally; and Pliny asserts that the Gauls tied their
female dogs in the woods that they might cross with wolves.[23] The
European wolf differs slightly from that of North America, and has been
ranked by many naturalists as a distinct species. The common wolf of India
is also by some esteemed as a third species, and here again we find a
marked resemblance between the pariah dogs of certain districts of India
and the Indian wolf.[24]
With respect to Jackals, Isidore Geoffroy Saint Hilaire[25] says that not
one constant difference can be pointed out between their structure and that
of the smaller races of dogs. They agree closely in habits: jackals, when
tamed and called by their {25} master, wag their tails, crouch, and throw
themselves on their backs; they smell at the tails of dogs, and void their
urine sideways.[26] A number of excellent naturalists, from the time of
Güldenstädt to that of Ehrenberg, Hemprich, and Cretzschmar, have expressed
themselves in the strongest terms with respect to the resemblance of the
half-domestic dogs of Asia and Egypt to jackals. M. Nordmann, for instance,
says, "Les chiens d'Awhasie ressemblent étonnamment à des chacals."
Ehrenberg[27] asserts that the domestic dogs of Lower Egypt, and certain
mummied dogs, have for their wild type a species of wolf (_C. lupaster_) of
the country; whereas the domestic dogs of Nubia and certain other mummied
dogs have the closest relation to a wild species of the same country, viz.
_C. sabbar_, which is only a form of the common jackal. Pallas asserts that
jackals and dogs sometimes naturally cross in the East; and a case is on
record in Algeria.[28] The greater number of naturalists divide the jackals
of Asia and Africa into several species, but some few rank them all as one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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