164 _ The Naturalist in Nicaragua 
to live amongst hair, their limbs being constructed for 
clinging to it. They deposit their nits or eggs amongst it, 
fastening them securely to the bases of the hairs. Although 
the pediculi are almost unknown to the middle and upper 
classes of civilised communities, in consequence of the 
cleanliness of their persons, clothing, and houses, they 
abound amongst savage and half-civilised people. A slight 
immunity from the attacks of acari and pediculi might in a 
tropical country more than compensate an animal for the 
loss of its hairy coat, especially in the case of the domesticated 
dog, which finds shelter with its master, has not to seek for 
its food at night, and is protected from the attacks of stronger 
animals. In the huts of savages dogs are greatly exposed 
to the attacks of parasitical insects, for vermin generally 
abound in such localities. Man is the only species amongst 
the higher primates that lives for months and years—often 
indeed from generation to generation—on the same spot. 
Monkeys change their sleeping places almost daily. The 
ourang-outang, that makes a nest of the boughs of trees, is 
said to construct a fresh one every night. The dwelling- 
places of savages, often made of, or lined with, the skins of 
animals, with the dusty earth for a floor, harbour all kinds 
of insect vermin, and produce and perpetuate skin disease, 
due to the attacks of minute sarcopti. If the dog by losing 
its hair shou!d obtain any protection from these and other 
insect pests, instead of wondering that a hairless breed of 
dogs has been produced in a tropical country, I am more 
surprised that haired ones should abound. That they do so 
must, I think, be owing to man having preferred the haired 
breeds for their superior beauty and greater variety, and 
encouraged their multiplication. 
