"Not a real dog, I should think. Only a kind of a general dog, at
most, I reckon. Though this is a matter of ichthyology, I suppose;
and if it is, it is out of my depth, and so my opinion is not
valuable, and I don't claim much consideration for it."

"It isn't ichthyology; it is dogmatics, which is still more
difficult and tangled up. Dogmatics always are."

"Dogmatics is quite beyond me, quite; so I am not competing. But
on general principles it is my opinion that a colt out of a coyote
and a wild-cat is no square dog, but doubtful. That is my hand,
and I stand pat."

"Well, it is as far as I can go myself, and be fair and
conscientious. I have always regarded him as a doubtful dog, and
so has Potter. Potter is the great Dane. Potter says he is no
dog, and not even poultry--though I do not go quite so far as that.

"And I wouldn't, myself. Poultry is one of those things which no
person can get to the bottom of, there is so much of it and such
variety. It is just wings, and wings, and wings, till you are
weary: turkeys, and geese, and bats, and butterflies, and angels,
and grasshoppers, and flying-fish, and--well, there is really no
end to the tribe; it gives me the heaves just to think of it. But
this one hasn't any wings, has he?"

"No."

"Well, then, in my belief he is more likely to be dog than poultry.
I have not heard of poultry that hadn't wings. Wings is the SIGN