from other domesticated animals) in favour of our domestic dogs having
descended from several wild stocks, that I am inclined to admit the truth
of this hypothesis.

There is another and closely allied difficulty consequent on the doctrine
of the descent of our domestic dogs from several wild species, namely, that
they do not seem to be perfectly fertile with their supposed parents. But
the experiment has not been quite fairly tried; the Hungarian dog, for
instance, which in external appearance so closely resembles the European
wolf, ought to be crossed with this wolf: and the pariah dogs of India with
Indian wolves and jackals; and so in other cases. That the sterility is
very slight between certain dogs and wolves and other Canidae is shown by
savages taking the trouble to cross them. Buffon got four successive
generations from the wolf and dog, and the mongrels were perfectly fertile
together. (1/48. M. Broca has shown ('Journal de Physiologie' tome 2 page
353) that Buffon's experiments have been often misrepresented. Broca has
collected (pages 390-395) many facts on the fertility of crossed dogs,
wolves, and jackals.) But more lately M. Flourens states positively as the
result of his numerous experiments that hybrids from the wolf and dog,
crossed inter se, become sterile at the third generation, and those from
the jackal and dog at the fourth generation. (1/49. 'De la Longevite
Humaine' par M. Flourens 1855 page 143. Mr. Blyth says ('Indian Sporting
Review' volume 2 page 137) that he has seen in India several hybrids from
the pariah-dog and jackal; and between one of these hybrids and a terrier.
The experiments of Hunter on the jackal are well-known. See also Isid.
Geoffroy St.-Hilaire, 'Hist. Nat. Gen.' tome 3 page 217, who speaks of the
hybrid offspring of the jackal as perfectly fertile for three generations.)
But these animals were closely confined; and many wild animals, as we shall
see in a future chapter, are rendered by confinement in some degree or even
utterly sterile. The Dingo, which breeds freely in Australia with our