White. — On the Neiv Zealand Dog. 587 



domesticated species, as the Black Polled Angus and Highland 

 ox, black and also white horses, sheep, goats, and pigs, not to 

 mention rabbits, cats, rats, and mice, which mostly are de- 

 ficient in colour in the eye, and so approximate to the albino. 

 All these are altered from their pristine colour by the effect of 

 domestication. So, when we read that the Maori of New 

 Zealand were seen by the early navigators to be possessed) of 

 black dogs, white dogs, and spotted dogs, we may reasonably 

 conclude that these dogs had been long under the influence of 

 man. 



It would be interesting to know what were the colours of 

 the dogs first noticed among the other peoples of the Pacific, 

 A. E. Wallace gives no description of dogs in the Archipelago. 

 Were the original dogs of the Pacific islands white, black, and 

 spotted, or is this seemingly long-domesticated form of dog 

 the original dog of the Moriori people ? 



To return to my other argument, which I left uncompleted. 

 If the helpless (?) dog of the islands came to New Zealand 

 some three hundred years ago — before Cook's arrival at New 

 Zealand — would not the changed conditions of its life in the 

 new country, and the effect of "variation and domestication," 

 alter its descendants so much that it would become useful to 

 its masters in catching food, and also acquire the habit of pro- 

 viding its own aliment from the plentiful supply of ground- 

 game, such as takahe, kiwi, weka, quail, and rats? The 

 early navigators w^ere only able to report on such doings of 

 the Maori as concerned fishing and a life along the margin of 

 the sea, for they were of necessity obliged to keep near their 

 boats, and often to make a hasty retreat. Both parties were 

 mutually suspicious and fearing treachery; therefore the Maori 

 always saw the European armed and ready for the fray, and 

 the European mostly saw the Maori, as it were, on the war- 

 path. The European and Maori were not then accustomed 

 to go a- hunting together; and whilst the Maori lived at his 

 seaside villa the order of the day would be fishing and feeding 

 on fish ; so the dog is said to eat fish. But who was to say 

 that the dogs did not go a-ratting on their own account when 

 so inclined ? A small English terrier is often trained to be 

 very useful in catching pigs by the European, and supposing 

 a party of Europeans were left for three hundred years on an 

 island teeming with ground-game, and at the outset had only 

 a few terriers to help them, would not the descendants of 

 these small dogs have increased in size by the judicious selec- 

 tion of their owners during this long term of years ? We may 

 safely answer. Yes. What, then, would prevent the Maori 

 selecting his most fitting and useful dogs and eating the puny 

 sluggards? To my thinking, it is preposterous to limit the 

 Maori to one particular shape or size of dog. Even the fact 



