The following curious fact I had from M. de Mailly, of the Academy of
Dijon: "The curate of Norges, near Dijon, has a bitch, which has had
all the symptoms of pregnancy, and having puppies without having been
in either state. She was proud, but was not suffered to go with a dog,
yet at the end of her usual term her paps were filled with milk, and
she brought up some young puppies that were taken to her, with as much
care and tenderness as if they had really been her own; and what is
more singular, this same bitch, about three years since, suckled two
young kittens, one of which has imbibed so much of the nature of her
nurse, that her cries infinitely more resemble the tones of a dog than
those of a cat." This is certainly a rare phenomenon, and were this
production of milk without impregnation more frequent, it would render
female animals more analogous to female birds who produce eggs without
connection with the male.
The Russians have brought several dogs to Paris, as Siberians, a very
different race from those which we have described; one in particular,
both male and female, were about the size of a common greyhound, with
pointed noses, ears half erect, and long tails; they were entirely
black, excepting a spot of white which the female had upon the top of
the head, and one which the male had upon his tail; they were very
fond, but exceedingly dirty and voracious, and it was almost impossible
to satisfy them with food; upon the whole, they were evidently of the
same race as we have treated of under the denomination of Iceland dogs.
Mr. Collinson, who had made various researches concerning the Siberian
dogs, informed me that their noses were pointed, and their ears long,
that some of them carried their tails like the wolf, others in the same
manner as the fox, and that they certainly engendered with both those
animals; that he had himself seen dogs and wolves couple in England,
and although he knew of no one who could say the same with regard to
dogs and foxes, from the kind well known there by the name of the
fox-dogs, he did not think there could be any doubt of the fact.
The Greenland dogs are mostly white, though some few are black, and
have very thick coats; they employ them for drawing their sledges, by
putting four or six of them together; they also eat their flesh, and
make clothes of their skins. The Kamtschatka dogs are also either black
or white, and are used for drawing sledges; they are suffered to run
at large during the summer, and in winter they are fed with a sort of
paste made with fish. These dogs of Greenland and Kamtschatka, as well
as the Russian dogs just mentioned, have a strong resemblance to the
Iceland dogs, and are most probably of the same race.
Notwithstanding the varieties I have described, there are still others
remaining, which I have not been able to procure; I have myself
seen two individuals of a wild race, but could not get a sufficient
opportunity even to describe them. M. Aubry, curate of St. Louis,
informed us that a few years since he saw a dog about the size of a
spaniel, with long hair and a very large beard on his chin. Louis XIV.
had some of these dogs sent to him by M. le Comte de Toulouse; and
Comte de Lassai had some of the same breed, but there is not any of
them to be found at present.
I have little to add with respect to the wild dogs, of which there are
different races, to what is contained in my original work; and the
following account of the wild dog found near the Cape of Good Hope, I
had from M. le Vicomte de Querhoënt; he says, there are a great number
of packs of wild dogs at the Cape; their skins are spotted with various
colours, and some of them are very large; their ears are erect, they
run extremely fast, and have no constant place of abode. They kill the
deer in great numbers, are seldom destroyed themselves, and are very
difficult to be caught in snares, from carefully avoiding every thing
that has been touched by man. Several of their young have been taken in
the woods, and some of those it has been attempted to render domestic,
but they grow up so large and so ferocious that the attempt has been
given up as in vain.
_END OF THE FIFTH VOLUME._
T. Gillet, Printer, Wild-Court.