DOMESTICATION. 235 



observed in tlie case of a very young Newfoundland puppy 

 which was given to me when scarcely able to toddle, but 

 which nevertheless at once followed me through tolerably 

 crowded streets. Yet this puppy can scarcely have known 

 me from any of the other persons he met, and therefore he 

 can only have followed me from his instinctive idea of 

 ownership, and his consequent fear of getting lost. This] 

 abstract idea of ownership is well developed in many, if not 

 in most dogs ; so that, for instance, it is not at all an unusual 

 thing to tind that if a master consigns his dog to the care ot 

 a friend previously unknown to the animal, the latter will 

 feel quite safe under the charge of one whom he has seen to 

 be his master's friend. For the time being the allegiance of 

 the animal is transferred, and. he feels to his master's friend, 

 not as to a stranger, but as to a deputed owner. It is not, 1 

 tliink, improbable that what appears to be the acquired in- 

 stinct of barking is, as it were, an offslioot from this acquired 

 instinct of property, and of protecting self as property, by 

 drawing the attention of a master to the approach of strangers 

 or enemies. 



Mr. DarwiU' has made a strong point of other and still 

 more special " domestic instincts " of the dog, which are 

 perhaps even more interesting than those above mentioned, 

 from the fact of their having been intentionally bred into the 

 animals by continued training with selection ; I allude to the 

 instincts of the sheep-dog, retriever, and pointer. He briefly 

 alludes to these cases in the " Origin of Species " (p. 209), 

 but dwells more fully upon them in his uncondensed MSS, 

 from which therefore I shall quote. 



" Look at the several breeds of Dogs, and see what dif- 

 ferent tendencies are inherited, many of which cannot, from 

 being utterly useless to the animal, have been inherited from 

 their one or several wild prototypes. I have talked with 

 several intelligent Scotch shepherds, and they were unanimous 

 in saying that occasionally a young sheep dog without any 

 instruction will naturally take to run round the flock, and 

 that all thorough-bred dogs can be easily taught to do this ; 

 and although they intensely enjoy the exercise of their innate 

 pugnacity, yet they do not worry the sheep, as any wild 

 canine animal of the same size would do. Look again at the 

 Eetriever, which so naturally takes to bringing back any 

 object to his master. The Eev. W. D. Fox informs me that 



