<pre style="white-space: pre-wrap">xt7tdz02zs50 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7tdz02zs50/data/mets.xml Shaler, Nathaniel Southgate, 1841-1906. 1895  books b92-264-31852149 English C. Scribner's Sons, : New York : Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. Domestic animals. Domesticated animals  : their relation to man and to his advancement in civilization / by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler. text Domesticated animals  : their relation to man and to his advancement in civilization / by Nathaniel Southgate Shaler. 1895 2002 true xt7tdz02zs50 section xt7tdz02zs50 


DOMESTICATED ANIMALS

 
      B Y THE 54 ME A U THOR

Domesticated   Animals. The Dog. Beasts
  ,f Burden, the Horse and Birds.  Illustrated.
  SVo......... ...................... 2.50

Sea  and  Land.    Features of Coasts and
  Oceans with especial reference to the life
  of Alan. Illustrated. Svo ..2.50

Aspects of the Earth. A Popular Account
  of Some Familiar Geological Phenomena.
  With Ioo illustrations.  Xe-w anns Ceap1'r
  Elition. Svo...                      2. :0

Nature and Man in America. i2mo. i.5o

 This page in the original text is blank.

 
AFRICAN ELEPHANT

 
DOMESTICATED ANIMALS


  THEIR RELATION TO MAN AND TO HIS

      ADVANCEMENT IN CIVILIZATION


                    Illy
       NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER
            DEAN  (OF THE  I.AWRHENCE  SCIENTIF(IC  9tHOL  OF
                 ti-AR IVAR   UNIVER1I1  Y


       ILL US TRA TED


       NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
           1895

 
      COi'VRiHT, 1895, )IV

CHARLES SCRTBIR'FR'S SONS


Press of J. J. Little & Co.
Astor Place, New York

 
                           CONTENTS


                                                                          PAGE
INTRODUCTION,


                                THE DOG

Ancestry of the Domesticated Dogs.-Early Uses of the Animal: Variations induced
   by Civilization.-Shepherd-dogs: their Peculiarities; other Breeds.-Possible In-
   tellectual Advances.-Evils of Specialized Breeding.-Likeness of Emotions of
   Dogs to those of Man: Comparison with other Domesticated Animals.-Modes
   of Expression of Emotions in Dogs.-Future Development of this Species.-Com-
   parison of Dogs and Cats as regards Intelligence and Position in Relation to Man, . ii


                               THE HORSE

Value of the Strength of the Horse to Man.-Origin of the Horse.-Peculiar Ad-
   vantage of the Solid Hoof.-Domestication of the Horse.-How begun.-Use
   as a Pack Animal.-For War.-Peculiar Advantages of the Animal for Use of
   Men.-Mental Peculiarities.-Variability of Body.-Spontaneous Variations due
   to Climate.-Variations of Breeds.-Effect of the Invention of Horseshoes.-
   Donkeys and Mules compared with Horse.-Especial Value of these Animals.-
   Diminishing Value of Horses in Modem Civilization.-Continued Need of their
   Service in War, .    .   .   .                                   .   . 57


     THE FLOCKS AND HERDS: BEASTS FOR BURDEN,
                         FOOD, AND RAIMENT

Effect of this Group of Animals on Man.-First Subjugations.-Basis of Domestica-
    bility.-Horned Cattle.-Wool-bearing Animals.-Sheep and   Goats.-Camels:
    their Limitation.-Elephants: Ancient History; Distribution ; Intelligence; Use
    in the Arts; Need of True Domestication.-Pigs: their Peculiar Economic Value;
    Modem Varieties; Mental Qualities.-Relation of the Development of Domesti-
    cable Animals to the Time of Man's Appearance on the Earth,   .    .     103

 
Viii                            CONTENTS


                         DOMESTICATED BIRDS
                                                                             PAGE
Domestication of Animals mainly accomplished by the Aryan Race; Small Amount of
    Such Work by American Indians.-Barnyard Fowl: Mental Qualities; Habits of
    Combat.-P'eacocks: their Limited Domestication.-Turkeys: their Origin; tend-
    ing to revert to the Savage State.-Water Fowl: Limited Number of Species
    domesticated ; Intellectual Qualities of this Group.-The Pigeon: Origin and
    History of Group; Marvels of Breeding.-Song Birds.-Hawks and Hawking.-
    Sympathetic Motive of Birds: their ,Esthetic Sense; their Capacity for Enjoy-
    ment,                                                                    1..      .    .   .    .          .        .  52


                             USEFUL INSECTS

Relations of Men to Insect WVorld.-But Few Species Useful to 'Man.-Little Trace
    of Domestication.-H1oney-bees: their Origin ; Reasons for no Selective Work
    Habits of the Species.-Silkworms: Singular Importance to 'Man.-Intelligence
    of Species.-Cochineal Insect.-Spanish Flies.-Future of Man relative to Use-
    ful Insects,.                                    ..         .   .    .   .    9


                      THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS

Recent Understanding as to the Rights of Animals; Nature of these Rights; their
    Origin in Sympathy.-Early State of Sympathetic Emotions.-Place of Statutes
    concerning Animal RZights.-Present and Future of Animal Rights.-Question of
    Vivisection.-Rights of Domesticated Animals to Proper Care; to Enjoyment.-
    Ends of the Breeder's Art.-Moral Position of the Hunter.-Probable Develop-
    ment of the Protecting Motive as applied to Animals, .    .   .    .   . 204


               THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION

The Conditions of Domestication; Effects on Society; Share of the Races of Men in
    the WVork.-Evils of Non-Intercourse with Domesticated Animals as in Cities;
    Remedies.-Scientific Position of Domestication ; Future of the Art.-List of
    Species which malt Advantageously be Domesticated.-Peculiar Value of the Birds
    and Mammals.-Importance of Groups which tenant High Latitudes.-Plan for
    Wilderness Reservations; Relation to National Parks.--Project for International
    System of Reservations.-Nature of Organic Provinces; Harm done to them by
    Civilized 'Men.-WVay in which Reservations would Serve to Maintain Types of
    the Life of the Earth ; how they may be Founded.-Summary and Conclusions, . 218

 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


  FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS


AFRICAN ELEPHANT,

SHEEP-DOGS GUARDING A FLOCK AT NIGHT,

HOUNDS RUNNING A WILD BOAR,

ON ROTTEN Row, HYDE PARK, LONDON,

CAVALRY HORSE, .   .   .  .   .  .

A HURDLE JUNIPER,

ENGLISH POLO PONIES,

WINNOWING GRAIN IN EGYPT,

THE HALT IN THE DESERT AT NIGHT-THE STORY TELLER,

CARRYING THE SUGAR CANE IN HARVEST-EGYPT,

FEEDING SILKWORMS WITH MULBERRY LEAVES IN JAPAN,

THE FARMIER'S APIARY,


            ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT

GREYHOUND AFTER "THE KILL,` .

ST. BERNARD, .   .   .   .

SPANIEL RETRIEVING WILD DUCK,  .

BULL-DOG,      .    .   .  .

FOX-HOUND AND PUPS,   .       .   .


        PAGE
  Fron/ispiece

          10

      53

         63

       . 7I

         79
         89

         III

        121

         125

       . 193

         199


13

' 5

17


2;

 
x


LIST OF ILLUSTRA TIONS


                                                              PAGE
POINTER RETRIEVING A FALLEN BIRD,             .   ,   .        26

POINTER AND SETTER, FLUSHING GAME,          .                  27

DUTCH DOGS USED IN HARNESS,                   .   .       .    30

KING CHARLES SPANIEL,                   .   .   .       .   .  33

THE POUNCE OF A TERRIER,                          .            35

PO'MERANIAN OR "SPITZ,`.                                    .  38

POODLES,                                                  .    39

COLLIE,                               .                 .      41

A HUNTER,                            .              .          60

HORSE OF A BULGARIAN MARAUDER,                  .              67

MARE AND FOAL,                              .         .        68

PLOUGH HORSES, FRANCE,                          .              73

BELGIAN FISHERMAN'S HORSE,            .   .       .   .        76

HORSES FOR TOWING ON THE BEACH IN HOLLAND,                     78

EXERCISING THE THOROUGHBREDS,                                  84

AN ARABIAN HORSE,                                              85

ARABIANr SPORTS,                                               86

SYRIAN HORSE,    .                                  .   .      92

IN THE CIRCUS,     .                                           96

DOMESTICATED BUFFALOES IN EGYPT. .  ,                         104

CATTLE OF INDIA,  .   .   .                                   105

INDIAN BULLOCK AND WATER-CARRIER,                             Io8

PLOUGHING IN SYRIA,                     .   .   .             109

EGYPTIAN SHEEP, .   .   .   .                                 114

BEDOUIN GOAT-HERD-PALESTINE,                  .   .   .       i16

THE GREAT CARAVAN ROAD-CENTRAL ASIA,                    .     119

CAMELS FEEDING,   .                                           123

CAMIELS ALONG THE SEA AT TWILIGHT,  ,                         127

AN INDIAN ELEPHANT,       .             ,     .               134

 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS


THE ORIGINAL JUNGLE FOWL (Gallus bankiva) AND SOME OF HIS Do-

   MIESTIC DESCENDANTS,

HOUDIN, COCHINS, LEGHORNS, AND GAME,

BANTAMS, BRAHMA, AND DORKINGS,

CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ASIA, AFRICA, AND AMERICA-PEACOCKS, GUINEA-

   FOWL, AND TURKEY,

THE DOMESTICATED TURKEY,

THE LARGEST OF ALL POULTRY-THE OSTRICH,

AN EIDER COLONY,

TERNS AIDING A WOUNDED COMRADE,

SOMIE RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE POULTRY YARD,

SWANS,

THE ORIGINAL WILD ROCK DOVE (Cosunba livia) AND SOME OF ITS

   DOMESTIC DESCENDANTS,

TURTLE DOVES,

THE GIANT CROWNED PIGEON OF INDIA,

THE ENGLISH PHEASANT,

THE FALCONER'S FAVORITE-PEREGRINE FALCON,

THE BANDIT'S BROOD,


xi


PAGE


153

158

160


163

165

168

170

171

173

174


175

177

178

181

184

186

 This page in the original text is blank.

 
       DOMESTICATED ANIMALS


                   INTRODUCTION

   ONE of the effects of the modern advance in natural
science has been greatly to increase the attention which is
devoted to the influences that the conditions of diverse
peoples have had upon their development. SMan is no longer
looked upon, as he was of old, as a being which had been
imposed upon the earth in a sudden and arbitrary manner,
set to rule the world into which he had been sent as a
master. \We now see him as one of the myriad species which
has won its way by powers of mind out of darkness and the
great struggle to the place of command. The way in which
this creature, weak in body and exceedingly dependent on
his surroundings, has in the modern geologic epoch come
forth from the mass of the lower animals, is by far the most
impressive and as yet the most unexplained phenomenon
which the geologist has to consider. It is not likely that the
marvellous advancement can be accounted for by an) single
cause; it is probably due, as are most of the great evolutions,
to the concurrence of many influences; but among these
which make for advance, we clearly have to reckon the
animals and plants which man has learned to associate wvith
his work of the household and the fields.
   Although certain species of insects, particularly the ants,
have the well-developed habit of subjugating certain creat-

 
DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS


ures of their own family, man is the only vertebrate that
has ever adopted the plan of domesticating a variety of
animals and plants. The beginnings of this custom were
made in a very remote time, and for long ages the profit
which was thereby gained appears to have been but slight.
Gradually, however, races, owing to their masterful quality
and to the opportunities which were offered by the wild
life about their dwelling places, obtained flocks and herds.
In the group of continents commonly termed the old world,
where there were several ancient primitive peoples of in-
nate ability, and where there were many species of larger
mammals which were well fitted for domestication, the
advance in social development went on rapidly. In the new
world, though the primitive races contained tribes of much
ability, there was practically no chance for the people to add
to their strength by the subjugation of beasts of burden, or
to their food resources by the adoption of various animals
which could be used for the needs of food or raiment. The
advance of men when they have obtained valuable domes-
ticated animals, and their failure to win a high station where
the surrounding nature denied such opportunities, go far to
prove the bearing of this accomplishment in the development
of peoples.
   A little consideration makes it evident to us that the
advance of mankind above the original savage state is in
several ways favored by the possession of domesticated ani-
mals. In the first place, each creature which is adopted into
the household or the fields usually brings as its tribute a sub-
stantial contribution to the resources which tend to make
the society commercially successful. \Vhen we consider the
enlargements of resources and the diversification of indus-


2

 
INTRODUCTION


tries which rest upon the adoption of any one of these
animals-as, for instance, the horse-we see in a way what Lhe
possession of domesticated animals and plants really means,
and are in a position to conceive, though at best but dimly,
what the scores of these captive species have done for us.
We recognize the fact that while, under almost any condi-
tions, a certain manner of advance above the most primitive
savagery is possible to a naturally able people, this on-going
cannot lead any distance unless the folk have other help
than their own weak bodies can give them. It is hardly too
much to say that civilization has intimately depended on the
subjugation of a great range of useful species.
   It would be interesting to trace, if we could, what share
the several domesticated animals have had in the develop-
ment of the human races; but this task is not to be done.
We can, however, discern that the Arab without the camel
and the horse would not have found the place in history
which he has filled, and that our own race could not have
attained its place save for the aid which the horned cattle,
sheep, and a host of other helpers which we have pressed
into service, have afforded. These economic gains have to
be judged in mass, they cannot be reckoned in detail. When
we have made the best account of them we can, there
remains another class of influences, the value of which,
though evidently great, is yet harder to reckon; these arise
from the education which has been attained through the care
of these adopted creatures. Among savages the great need
is a training in forethoughtfulness; all primitive peoples are
like children, they live in the interests of the day; the cares
of the seasons to come, or even of the morrow, are not for
them. The possession of domesticated animals certainly did


3

 
DOMESTICA TED AXIMALS


much to break up this old brutal way of life; it led to a
higher sense of responsibility to the care of the household;
it brought about systematic agriculture; it developed the art
of war; it laid the foundations of wealth and commerce, and
so set men well upon their upward way. Moreover, the use
of domesticated animals of the better sort enabled the more
viigorous and care-taking races to gain the strength which led
to their advancement in power to a point where they were
able to displace the lower and feebler tribes. In other words,
the system of domestication has provided a method by which
those peoples who were fitted to develop the qualities which
make for civilization could advance; it has provided the
opportunity for selection.
   Of all the influences which have been exercised on man
by the care of his flocks, herds, and droves, perhaps the most
important is that which has arisen from the broader develop-
ment of his sympathies. The savage may be defined as a
man who cares only for his family and his tribe; the civilized
man as one whose kindly interest extends to mankind and
beyond to all sentient beings. In the development of this
altruistic motive the care of the dependent species has
evidently been most effective. We note that the peoples
who have attained the first upward step in the association
with domesticated animals are in their quality, so far as
tested by literature and history, much above the mere sav-
age. With the care of the flocks we find associated poetry,
the first notes of higher religious motives, and a largeness
of the sympathetic life which is favored by the nature of
the occupation.  Where the nomadic habits of the original
shepherds pass into the more sedentary state of the soil
tiller, the element of personal care and the affection and


4

 
ZIVRODUCTION              5


the consequent education of the sympathy were increased.
Men had now to care for half a dozen or more kinds of
animals; they had to learn their ways, in a manner to put
themselves in their places and conceive their needs. Thus
the life of a farmer is a continual lesson in the art of sym-
pathy; with the result, certainly in part due to this cause,
that there is no class of people from whom the brutal in-
stincts of the ancient savage life which we all inherit have
been so completely eradicated.
   It is perhaps too much to attribute the advance of the
agricultural classes of our civilized peoples, in all that serves
to remove them from the brutality of their savage ancestors,
altogether to the nature of their work-to the very large
element of kindly care for which it calls, and which is the
price of success in the occupation. Yet when wve note the
immediate way in which the people bred in cities, under
circumstances of excitement are wont to behave like savages
of the lower kind, showing in their conduct a lack of all
sympathetic education, and contrast their behavior with that
of their kinsmen from the fields-we see essential differences
in character which cannot well be explained save by the
diverse natures of the training which the men have received.
Thus in the French Revolution, the baser, more inhuman
deeds were not committed by the peasants, who had been
the principal sufferers under the regime which was over-
thrown, but by the people of the great towns who had been
less oppressed by the iniquities of the old system of gov-
ernment.
   If it be true-as my personal experiences and observations
lead me firmly to believe is the case-that man's contact with
the domesticated animals has been and is ever to be one of


5

 
DOMES TICA TED ANIMALS


the most effective means whereby his sympathetic, his civil-
ized motives may be broadened and affirmed, there is clearly
reason for giving to this side of life a larger share of atten-
tion than it has received. So far the presence of these lower
creatures in our society has generally been accepted as a
matter of course. Sentimentalists, after the fashion of Lau-
rence Sterne, have dwelt upon the imaginary woes of the
creatures.  Associations of well-meaning people have en-
deavored to diminish the cruelty which people of the towns,
rarely those bred on the soil, often inflict upon them. It
seems, however, desirable that we should place this con-
sideration upon a plane more fitting the knowledge of our
time. It should be made plain, not only that the success of
our civilization depends now as in the past on the coopera-
tion which mankind has had from the domesticated animals,
but also that the development of this relation is one of the
most interesting features in all history.  On through the
ages of the geologic past comes this great procession of
life, in the endless succession of species whose numbers in
the aggregate are to be reckoned by the scores, if not by
the hundreds of millions. Until this modern age, the throng
goes forward blindly, groping its way towards the higher
planes of life. At length certain of the more advanced
forms attain to a measure of intellectual elevation.  Still,
for all this advance, the life is not organized so as to attain
any large ends; no society arises from it.
   Suddenly, in the last geological epoch, man, the descend-
ant of a group which like all others had led the narrow life
of the preparatory ages, appears upon the scene. At first,
and in his lower human estate, his position was not notice-
ably higher than that of his kindred, but there was in him


6

 
INTRODUCTiON


the seed of a great unlikeness, of very new things, in that his
desires had an element of the unlimited which was to grow
apace, and in time to make him greedy of on-going. As this
innovating creature sought for agents of power in the wilder-
ness about him, he blindly laid hands upon such of the fellow
tenants of the wilds as might serve his immediate needs.
This species, both animals and plants, endowed with the
capacity for variation, the plasticity which is in general a
characteristic of all organic forms, were early led by their
new master, as of old they had been guided by the old
organic laws. They changed according to his choice, aban-
doning their ancient ways for the novel paths of civilization.
With this association of the higher forms of the earth under
the leadership of man, there began an entirely new and
unprecedented condition of the world's affairs. In place of
the ancient law of nature there came the control of our spe-
cies which had been, in a way, chosen to be the overlord of
life.
   At first, the number of species of animals and plants which
man brought under his control was very limited; it was
indeed confined to those which might readily be subjugated
to meet immediate needs. Gradually, however, the list has
been extended until it included thousands of forms, which,
while they meet no need such as the savage recognizes, are
gratifying to the taste or the ambitions of civilized peoples.
These aesthetic devices, or those of necessity, are advancing
so rapidly that each generation sees hundreds of new animal
and plant species added to our living collections, so that our
plant and animal gardens now contain a large share of the
more attractive forms which are to be found in the various
geographical realms.  Our tilled fields yield perhaps a

 
DOME5TICA TED ANIMALS


hundred times as many varieties of plants as they did in the
earliest historic agriculture. The advance in the process of
domestication is not so rapid as regards the animal kingdom
as it is with the realm of plants, and this mainly for the reason
that animals have a will of their own which has to be bent or
broken to that of man. Still it goes on apace. We of to-day
have at our command many times the number of sentient spe-
cies contributive to our pleasure or profit that had been made
captive at the beginning of our era. Naturally, in the early
days of domestication, men brought under their control the
greater number of the animals which gave promise of utility.
As no new species of any economic importance have been
created within the last geologic period, the field for the exten-
sion of economic domestication has of late been very limited.
But the realm of sympathetic appreciation, unlike the econo-
mic, knows no definite bounds, and promises in time to bring
all the more important organic forms under the care of the
sympathetic and masterful being who has been chosen as
the ruler of terrestrial life.
   We thus see that the matter of domesticated animals is
but a part of the larger problem which includes all that
relates to man's destined mastery of the earth-a mastery
which he is rapidly winning. It means that, in time, a large
part of the life of this sphere is to be committed to his care,
to survive or perish as he wills, to change at his bidding, to
give, as other subjugated kinds have done, whatever of profit
or pleasure they may contribute to his endless advancement.
From this point of view our domesticated creatures should be
presented to our people, with the purpose in mind of bring-
ing them to see that the process of domestication has a far-
reaching aspect, a dignity, we may fairly say a grandeur, that


8

 
INTRODUCTION


few human actions possess. If wve can impress this view, it
will be certain to awaken men to a larger sense of their
responsibility for, and their duty by, the creatures which we
have taken from their olden natural state into the social
order. It will, at the same time, enlarge our conceptions of
our own place in the order of this world.
   In the following pages little effort has been made to pre-
sent those facts concerning domesticated animalswhich would
commonly be reckoned as scientific.  The several essays
which, in larger part, were separately printed in Scribner's
Magazine, are intended for those persons who, while the)
may not care to approach the matter in the manner of the
professional inquirer, are glad to have the results which
naturalists have attained, so far as the) may serve to extend
knowledge of things which lie in the field of familiar experi-
ences. To the text as it at first appeared, numerous additions
have been made, and the concluding chapters, on the Rights
of Animals, and on the Problem of Domestication, are new.
In them an effort is made to direct attention to the import-
ance of the problem of man's relation to the lower life which
is about him, and which in the future far more than in the
past is to be helped or hindered by his rule.  Our life is
made up of large problems; but there seem few that are
greater than this, which concerns our duty by the creatures
that share with us the blessings of existence, and over which
wve have come to rule.


9

 
z


09

U)

 
THE DOG


Ancestry of the Domesticated Dogs.-Early Uses of the Animal: Variations induced 1b
   Civilization.-Shepherd-dogs: their Peculiarities; other Breeds.-Possible Intellectual
   Advances.-Evils of Specialized Breeding.-Likeness of Emotions of Dogs to those of
   MIan: Comparison with other Domesticated Animals.-Nlodes of Expression of Emo-
   tions in Dogs.-Future Development of this Species.-Comparison of Dogs and Cats as
   regards Intelligence and Position in Relation to 'Man.

   IT is an interesting fact that the first creature which man
wvon to domesticity wvas made captive and friend for the sake
of companionship     rather than for any grosser profit.     The
dog  was, the world over, the first living possession of man
beyond the limits of his own kindred.     He has been so long
separated from the primitive species whence he sprang that
we cannot trace with any certainty his kinship with the creat-
ures of the wilderness. Like his master he has become so
artificialized that it is hard to conjecture what his original
state may have been.
   Naturalists are much divided in opinion in all that relates
to the origin of our ancient and common domesticated
animals; and this for the reason that the longer a creature
has been subjected to the change-bringing conditions of our
fields and households, the further it has departed from the
parent stock. This difficulty is naturally the greatest in the
case of the dogs, for the reason that they have been longer
and more completely under the control of man than any
other of the lower animals. Some students of the problem
have inclined to the opinion that the dog is a descendant

 
I 2            DOMESTICA TED ANIMALS

of the wolf; the whelps of this species, it is supposed, were
captured by primitive men and brought under domes-
tication. Savages, like children, are much given to bringing
the young of wild animals to their homes; if the condi-
tions are favorable they will care for these captives, even
if the charge upon their resources is tolerably heavy.
\With most primitive people, however, life is so vagari-
ous and starvation so recurrent that they are not apt to
retain their pets long enough to establish domesticated
forms.  Thus, among our American Indians, though they
show fondness for wild creatures as much as any other
people, no species save the dog ever became permanently
associated with their tribe.  It is, howsever, possible, that
in some sedentary group of savages the work of domesti-
cating the ancestors of the dog, even if they were wolf-like,
was accomplished.
   The difficulty of this view is that even with the high
measure of care which the conditions of civilization permit
us to devote to the effort, it has been found impossible to
educate captive wolves to the point where they show any
affection for their masters, or are ih the least degree useful
in the arts of the household or the occupations of the
chase.  They are, in fact, indomitably fierce and utterly
self-regarding.  It seems unreasonable to believe that any
savage would have found either pleasure or profit from
an effort to tame any of the known species of wolves.
MIoreover, the fact that dogs show little or no tendency to
revert to the form and habits of their brutal kindred, or
to interbreed with them, is clearly against the supposition
that there is any close relation between the creatures.
   Yet other speculative inquirers have sought the origin of

 
THE DOG


I I
3)


the dog through the admixture of the blood of several differ-
ent species, the wolf and the jackal being, perhaps, the prin-
cipal or the only components of the hybrid stock. Here, too,
the evidence of nature is against the supposition. No one
has ever succeeded in hybridizing the wolf and the jackal.
nor do our dogs show any more tendency to revert to the
jackal than to the wolf. They meet their tropical relative


                       Greyhound after "the Kill"
with as much animosity as is proper, or at least customary,
in the intercourse of allied yet distinct species.  In fact,
all the indices by which we are able to carry back the
history of other domesticated animals to their primitive or
even extinct ancestry, fail in the case of the dog.  WNrhen
the stock is allowed to go as nearly wild as they can
be induced to become, we do not find that they thereby
approach to any known wild form.      It therefore seems

 
DOMES TICA TED AXIMALS


reasonable to betake ourselves to another basis for the
natural history of the dog, which has not yet been made
a matter of much inquiry, but which promises to afford us
more substantial truth than the conjectures which we have
just considered.
   \Ve should, in the first place, note the fact that the ances-
tors of our more important domesticated animals, those which
have been longest in subjugation, have commonly disappeared
from the wild state-the species, except for the cultivated
forms, having gone into the irrecoverable past. This is the
case with the wild kindred of our bulls, horses, sheep, and
camels, there probably being none of the original wild species
of these groups now living, except those which have been
more or less completely subjugated by man, and then have
returned to the wilderness. The fact is, that with any large
mammal the domestication of the species tends to bring
about the destruction of the remaining wild forms. If we
go back in fancy to the time when the dog was taken
in from the wilderness, we readily perceive how certainly
the subjugated individuals would have mingled with their
wiild kindred, so that either the wild would have become
tame or vice vei-sa. The same incompatibility which exists
between slavery and freedom in our own species in any
given territory may be said to hold in the case of captive
animals. It is particularly on this account that I am dis-
posed to think that our races of dogs have been derived
from one or more original species of truly canine ancestors,
the wild forms of which have long since disappeared from
the earth.
   Although there are no species of wild dogs now in exist-
ence to which we can refer the origrin of our household friends,


I14

 
TfHE DOG


there are several known to us only in their fossil state, from
which they may possibly-indeed, we may say probably-
have been derived. These creatures are, of course, repre-
sented only by their skeletons, and even these remains have
only been found in an imperfect state of preservation. It is
evident, however, that these extinct species, or at least cer-
tain of them, lived down to the time wvhen man had come


                          St. Be"nand

upon the earth, and was beginning to speculate on his sur-
roundings for such company and help as he might win
therefrom. It may interest the reader to know that a spe-
cies of American dog existed in the Southern Al)palachians
down to a very recent time-rece</pre>