INTERBREEDING. TAMABILITY, AND VOICE. A few special considerations may well be made at this point, as tending to illuminate the relation which domestic dogs bear to the wild forms. First, it appears certain, although it may almost never oc-enr under natural conditions, where the primal instincts of kinship prevent crossing of 'species; that all the various canine animals may inter breed and produce offspring. This has been accomplished in the case of some species in cap tivity or 'a state of semi-domestieation. Whether these hybrid offspring are fertile with each other in every ease, or usually. is not so certain. A few instances are recorded in which they have been found to be so.
In respect to tamability, canine animals are much superior as a tribe to feline animals, and perhaps no species intelligently tried has proved intractable. Pet examples of almost every spe cies have been found among the savage or partly civilized peoples of the %%odd, and the owners of menageries find even wolves submitting well to the trainers. There seems to be in the eanine nature, disposing them to gather in packs and hunt in concert, and strengthened by these prac tices, a sympathetic element wanting in most other carnivores, the cultivation of which by man has led to the close affiliation between him and Imis fhig, and to the expansion of the dog nature into the beautiful fidelity, appreciation, and affection it exhibits in its higher examples.
Wild canines may be said to howl, to yelp, to whine, to growl, and t ven—as some have men tioned—to bay when pursuing quarry: but none truly barks. :Much attention was paid to this point by Alr. Bartlett, for many years keeper of the Zoidogical rdens of London, who concluded from his observation of the captives, of many wild species. under his care. that the barking of domestic dogs is an acquired habit. but one into which wild canines quickly fall by imitation. "A well-known instance of this," Alr. Bartlett wrote (Proreedingg of the Zoiilog jot! Society of London, "oceurred under my notice. A wild ant arctic wolf. after a few months, hearing the bark ing of dog- in the immediate neighborhood, be ,ran to hark, and succeeded admirably. The same thing has happened to my knowledge in the ease of pure-bred Eskimo dogs and dings.." See Plates of lVotves Axn WILD Does: and Foxt:s