Chap. I. THEIR PARENTAGE. 41 



by a kind of natural selection ; for the dogs of savages have 

 parti} 7 to gain iheir own subsistence : for instance, in Aus- 

 tralia, as Ave hear from Mr. Nincl, 77 the dogs are sometimes 

 compelled by want to leave their masters and provide for 

 themselves ; but in a few days they generally return. And 

 we may infer that dogs of different shapes, sizes, and habits, 

 would have the best chance of surviving under different 

 circumstances, — on open sterile plains, w T here they have to 

 run down their own prey, — on rocky coasts, where the} 7 have 

 to feed on crabs and fish left in the tidal pools, as in the case 

 of New Guinea and Tierra del Fuego. Jn this latter country, 

 as I am informed by Mr. Bridges, the Catechist to the Mission, 

 the dogs turn over the stones on the shore to catch the crus- 

 taceans which lie beneath, and they " are clever enough to 

 knock off the shell-fish at a first blow ;" for if this be not 

 done, shell-fish are well known to have an almost invincible 

 power of adhesion. 



It has already been remarked that dogs differ in the degree 

 to which their feet are w^ebbed. In dogs of the Newfoundland 

 breed, which are eminently aquatic in their habits, the skin, 

 according to Isidore Geoffroy, 78 extends to the third phalanges 

 whilst in ordinary dogs it extends only to the second. In 

 two Newfoundland dogs which I examined, when the toes 

 were stretched apart and viewed on the under side, the skin 

 extended in a nearly straight line between the outer margins 

 of the balls of the toes ; whereas, in two terriers of distinct 

 sub-breeds, the skin viewed in the same manner was deeply 

 scooped out. In Canada there is a dog which is peculiar to 

 the country and common there, and this has " half-webbed 

 feet and is fond of the water." 79 English otter-hounds are 

 said to have webbed feet : a friend examined for me the feet 

 of two, in comparison with the feet of some harriers and 

 bloodhounds ; he found the skin variable in extent in all, but 

 more developed in the otter-hounds than in the others. 80 As 



77 Quoted by Mr. Galton, ' Domesti- vol. vi., 1833, p. 511. 



cation of Animals,' p. 13. 80 See Mr. C. 0. Gn>om-Napier on 



73 ' Hist. Nat. Gen.,' torn. iii. p. 450. the webbing of the hind feet of Otter- 



79 Mr. Greenhow on the Canadian hounds, in 'Land and Water,' Oct. 



Dog, in Loudon's ' Mag. of Nat. H.st.' 13th, 1866, p. 270. 



