262 THE ANIMALS AND MAN 



to survive in Nature. In fact most of these artificially in- 

 duced changes tend to unfit the animal for success in life 

 unaided by man; they are mostly degenerative changes. 

 The loss of flight, the shortening of legs, the over-develop- 

 ment of fat, the production of crests and plumes and ruffs, 

 the loss of horns, the sluggishness and helplessness that 

 characterize the domesticated animals of different kinds, are 

 all characters and conditions of degeneration. 



FIG. 137. Thibet wolf, Canis niger, one of the wild ancestors of dogs. 

 (After Sclater.) 



As an outcome of this modern great interest and activity 

 in the methods and results of producing new races and types 

 of domesticated animals, the history of the origin of many 

 of the more wide-spread and useful of these animal races 

 has been unraveled, and the following paragraphs give in 

 briefest possible form some interesting facts about the origin 

 of our more familiar animal companions. 



There seems to be no doubt that the dog is the oldest 

 domesticated animal as he is also the closest and the most 

 universal. From among the crudest of living human races 

 to the most civilized and cultivated, the dog is everywhere al- 

 ways man's companion, serving him as faithful helper in 



