34 CHARLES R. STOCKARD 



hounds, bulldogs, Blenheim spaniels, terriers, pugs, etc., un- 

 less we believe that forms equally or more strongly charac- 

 terized in these different respects once existed in nature. But 

 hardly anyone has been bold enough to suppose (this) . . . 

 No instance is on record of such dogs as bloodhounds, spaniels, 

 true greyhounds having been kept by savages . . . The num- 

 ber of breeds and sub-breeds of the dog is great ; Youatt, for 

 instance, describes twelve kinds of greyhounds." (p. 35, v. 1.) 



Darwin also points out that different breeds of dogs be- 

 come adapted to different climates under which they have 

 long existed, and states, with reference to importation of 

 European breeds into India: "It is positively asserted that 

 when bred there for a few generations they degenerate not 

 only in their mental faculties, but in form." (p. 39, v. 1.) 

 This appears to be the case with hounds, greyhounds and 

 pointers, but spaniels apparently are not so affected. Darwin 

 further calls attention to the fact that bulldogs bred for 

 righting and bull baiting 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 longer 

 and their bodies lighter. 



In other countries there is a similar degeneration or modi- 

 fication of imported breeds, though this fact is not widely 

 realized. Many of our American dogs are largely derived 

 from imported European breed stocks and the characters and 

 points on which these breeds are judged are determined by 

 European fanciers and judges. For several years I have 

 observed that American bred dogs, although carefully se- 

 lected from the best imported champion stock, usually fail 

 to win in point competition against the European bred ani- 

 mals imported for a kennel show. A breed developed in 

 Europe is partially the product of that environment, and its 

 type becomes somewhat modified when reared under different 

 conditions in another part of the world. The breed char- 

 acteristics would seem to be, to a slight degree at least, the 

 product of the environment in which they were primarily 

 developed. No doubt the development and interaction of the 

 endocrine glands, particularly in highly modified types, are 



