Natural History.

Otago Witness, Issue 1582, 18 March 1882, Page 28

Natural History.

NOTES FOR THE YOUNG.-DOGS.

By Unole David.

After a long silence, I have again to ask my young readers to resume their study of the dog. On the face of this animal there are certain small tubercles or warts, giving forth a few stiff hairs— one on each side, beyond the angle of the mouth, a smaller one, often scarcely discernable, near the ear, and one on the under jaw beyond the chin. There is a small patch on the under surface of the tail, near its centre, where the hair is very scant, more especially in smooth-haired dogs. The tail is often turned upwards, and usually inclined slightly to the left. Of all carnivorous animals they have the greatest variety of voice. They bark, howl, yelp, whine, and snarl according to their emo tions. The dog never perspires, but lolls out its tongue when heated, and salivary fluid drips from its mouth. You will have noticed that it repeatedly turns round before it lies down in the chosen spot; it can do without food for a long time, but it requires drink often. The number of young at a litter varies from four to eight. They are born blind, and the eyes do not open till the tenth or twelfth day. At the age of three years it is full grown, ana it rarely lives longer than fifteen or sixteen years. Like my young readers, the dog is wont to dream. Where is the lad who has not observed a dog in sleep wag its tail, move its paws, make ineffectual efforts to bark, and often so greatly agitate itself that the hair rises on its flanks ? There are certain characteristics of a wellbred dog, whatever the race to. which it belongs, which is worth your attention. These are : — A large and full eye, bold and sparkling; a neck well raised from the breast ; shoulders high and thrown back, with shoulder joints

prominently marked ; the breast broad ; the chest deep ; loins arched, broad and muscular j the tail gradually tapering ; the limbs clean, sinewy, and firm ; the feet cat-like and rounded j the length from heel to toe short ; the thighs muscular and set back ; no unnecessary loose skin about the body, nor any thick, clumsy joints. The well-bred dog, from the roughest collie to the sleekest hound will exhibit these points, which are the infallible signs of canine strength and energy. A gentleman writing some years ago to the Royal Society, remarks :— 'ln all animals it is observable that they inherit the habits of their parents, but in the dog this peculiarity exists to a wonderful ■ extent. The offspring appears to inherit, not only the passions and propensities, but even the resentments of the family from which ifc springs. I have ascertained that a terrier, whose parents had been in the habit of fighting with polecats, will instantly show every mark of anger when he first gains the scent of that animal, though the animal itself be wholly concealed. A young spaniel brought up with the terriers, showed no mark of emotion at the scent of the polecat ; but it pursued a woodcock the first time it saw one with clamour and exultation ; and a young pointer, which I am certain had never seen a partridge, stood trembling with anxiety, it's eyes fixed, and it's muscles rigid, when led into a covey of these birds. Yet each of these dogs is merely a variety of the same species, and to that specie! none of these habits are given by nature. The pointer, whose parents have for generations baen trained for purposes of sport, will take to pointing almost without any instruction, whil«> one descended from parents which were not trained, will require great care and pains to teach it it's duties. It is said that doga m the wild state do not bark, but only howl, and that the bark is an imitation of the human voice ; but the pup of the tame dog barks, though it mayneverhave heard a similar sound. Dogs that have been trained to hunt the peccary, have offspring that seem, from the first attempt, to understand the proper and very strange mode of attack required, while another dog is at once destroyed by this savage creature. A St. Bernard dog, born in London, began to track footsteps in the snow, after the manner of its parents ; and a puppy taken from its parents at six weeks old, who, though never taught to beg— an accomplishment which its mother had been taught— took of its own accord to begging for everything it wanted when about six months old. He would beg for food, beg to be out of the room, and one day waa found opposite the rabbit-hutch begging for the rabbits.

The dog often appears in painting and poetry as the companion of man. Cowper, in describing a ' Winter Morning's Walk, says ;— 'Forth goes the woodman, leaving unconcerned The cheerful haunts of man, to wield the axe And drive the wedge, in yonder forest drear, From morn to eve his solitary task. Shaggy, and lean, and shrewed, with pointed ears And tail cropped short, half lurcher and half cur, His dog attends him. Close behind his heel ><ovr creeps he slow : arid now, with many a frisk Wide scaruperine, snatches up the drifted snow With ivory teeth, or ploughs It with his snout; Then shakes his powdered coat and barka for joy.' The good dog-master, whether in New Zealand or elsewhere, looks upon his dog as hia friend, so that ' Love me, love my dog,' has become a proverb. You are all aware, no doubt, that there are a great variety of dogs. I will now proceed to consider them as forming several groups, and will endeavour to illustrate by a few wellknown facts their respective powers and dispositions. And lam convinced that if you will not feel too proud to take a lesson from this humble creature, you will learn many a useful quality ; yes, qualities that lam sorry to say, are seldom exemplified among humanity. You will learn of attachments, never to be weaned by change of fortune, attachments that will be proof against unkindness, absence, and neglect ; of fidelity that cannot be moved by bribe or threat, and of gratitude thai will last as long as life. 'All the great and ancient races of dogs may be regarded as divided into a rough and smooth variety, which appear to have been independent of climate. In the first group which I shall notice, the ears are erect, the nose pointed, the hair long, and sometimes woolly ; the form robust and muscular, and the aspect more or less wolfish. It has been stated by an authority that all those dogs which have been domesticated, or which depend on man for their food, have their ears dependent ; while those that; are wild and undomesticated have their ears erect. If you will read carefully the following letters, you will be able to tell whether the above assertion is correct. In my next I will commence an individual description by acquainting yeu with the Mackenzie River, or Hare-Indian dog.