Title: The book of dogs; an intimate study of mankind's best friend
Identifier: cu31924001178130 (find matches)
Year: 1919 (1910s)
Authors: National Geographic Society (U. S. ); Fuertes, Louis Agassiz, 1874-1927; Baynes, Ernest Harold, 1868-1925
Subjects: Dog breeds; Dogs
Publisher: Washington, D. C. , The National Geographic Society
Contributing Library: Cornell University Library
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE
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French war dog: a courser whose winged EEET spurn the earth A remarkable "flight" picture of one of the liaison couriers trained and used by the French for emergencies when the telephone system in the front-line trenches was put out of commission by enemy artillery (see pages 17, 55, and 73). Let us recall for a moment some of the dogs we have noticed and see how widely they diflfer in appearance. For instance, compare a giant Saint Bernard, weighing between 250 and 300 pounds, with a tiny Chihuahua, which may barely tip the scales at a pound and a half and which can stand on the outstretched hand of a lady. Or look at the tall, lithe wolfhounds and greyhounds, built to move like the winds of heaven, and then turn toward the short-legged, crooked-jointed bassets and dachshund, and you will surely smile and probably laugh out loud. Compare a Newfoundland or, better still, an Eskimo dog, whose thick, dense coat can withstand even the rigors of an Arctic winter, with a hairless dog of Mexico or Africa, which looks cold even in the middle of summer. And we note that such striking com- parisons can be made not only in the gen- eral appearance of the dogs, but in almost every feature of them. We see ears that stand straight up Ijke those of the Ger- man shepherd, ears that fall forward at the tips, like those of the collie, and ears long and pendulous, like those of the bloodhound, which extend far beyond the tip of the nose and sometimes touch the ground when the animal is on the trail. These and the endless other compari- sons of the many different breeds may make us hesitate to accept the conclusion which naturalists, led by Darwin, have arrived at, namely, that all domestic dogs are descended from a few wild forms, namely, wolves, jackals, and possibly dingos (page 10). Yet it seems that the naturalists are corrgct in their conclu- sions,, and that the many varieties found at the bench show are but so many proofs of what Maeterlinck, and Cuvier before him, point out, namely, that the dog is the one animal which can follow man all over the earth and adapt himself to every cli-

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