Chap. I. THEIR PARENTAGE. 39 



teeth to work on, he could probably do so, for he has 

 succeeded in making hornless breeds of cattle and sheep. 



"With respect to the precise causes and steps by which the 

 several races of dogs have come to differ so greatly from each 

 other, we are, as in most other cases, profoundly ignorant. We 

 may attribute part of the difference in external form and con- 

 stitution to inheritance from distinct wild stocks, that is to 

 changes effected under nature before domestication. We must 

 attribute something to the crossing of the several domestic 

 and natural races. I shall, however, soon recur to the crossing 

 of races. We have already seen how often savages cross their 

 dogs with wild native species ; and Pennant gives a curious 

 account 74 of the manner in which Fochabers, in Scotland, was 

 stocked " with a multitude of curs of a most wolfish aspect " 

 from a single hybrid-wolf brought into that district. 



It would appear that climate to a certain extent directly 

 modifies the forms of dogs. We have lately seen that several 

 of our English breeds cannot live in India, and it is positively 

 asserted that when bred there for a few generations they 

 degenerate not only in their mental faculties, but in form. 

 Captain Williamson, 75 who carefully attended to this subject, 

 states that " hounds are the most rapid in their decline ;" 

 " greyhounds and pointers, also, rapidly decline." But 

 spaniels, after eight or nine generations, and without a cross 

 from Europe, are as good as their ancestors. Dr. Falconer 

 informs me that bulldogs, which have been known, when 

 first brought into the country, to pin down even an elephant 

 by its trunk, not only fall off after two or three generations 

 in pluck and ferocity, but lose the under-hung character 

 of their lower jaws ; their muzzles become finer and their 

 bodies lighter. English dogs imported into India are so 

 valuable that probably due care has been taken to prevent 

 their crossing with native dogs ; so that the deterioration 

 cannot be thus accounted for. The Eev. E. Everest informs 

 me that he obtained a pair of setters, born in India, which 

 perfectly resembled their Scotch parents : he raised several 

 litters from them in Delhi, taking the most stringent 



74 'Historv of Quadrupeds,' 1793, 7S 'Oriental Field Sports,' quoted 



fol. i. p. 23& by Youatt, 'The Dog,' p. 15. 



