CANIS FAMILTAEIS. 169 



survivors — of tlie early parents of such Egyptians and Indians. If we 

 could believe this, we could also believe that witli such a more 

 primitive human race (which, on this view, would have survived in 

 Australia) the more primitive domestic canine race may have survived 

 there also and become feral. 



The doctrine now generally accepted amongst men of science is that 

 aTPexlsting races of mankind sprang from one primitive race and 

 varied locally — radiating from a single geographical centre. We cannot 

 see any impossibility in all existing races of Dogs having also sprang 

 from a single kind and varied locally ; also radiating from a single 

 geographical centre. We know that the Dog existed in company with 

 man in prehistoric times, and the f act that (liti'min inihi^toric raccs^of 

 Dogjuccfifided one another, and that the earliest iii^rorica! niniiuiiiL-nts 

 show that various Ijreeds, more or less like existing breeds, luul then 

 arisenjby no means proves that the T")og had not for ages existed in 

 man's compaiiy,jis little differentiated as was the Dingo when Euro- 

 peans first visited Australia. That suck.a primitive dog would tend G^L 

 to vary when exposed to very different climatic conditions, is shown '^^ CI\cl. 

 botlrby the change of coat, according to the seasons, which we have '. , ^^ 

 seen sg often takes place in oth er canine s pecies, and also l)y the fact ^ (i 



t.hatjJ iP Dnme sticJ 3og of to -day does undergo much modification from ^-^- 



climatic change. It is also probable that sudden modifications of form 

 might have excited interest, and so been preserve d by selection. ^ ^ 



Donitz has described * a Fox's skull shaped like a Bull-dog's, with a -€^ '^"^ 



shortened snout and " underhung," the mandible being upturned in front 'C- 



of the premaxillae. This is a very interesting and noteworthy instance 

 of a wild and very distinct species with an abnormality like that existing 

 in one of the most peculiar of our races of the Domestic Dog. Darwin 

 cites evidence t of the degeneration of Greyhounds, Setters, and 

 Pointers in India, as also of Bull-dogs, after two or three generations, 

 not only losing their pluck and skill, but also their peculiar shape, 

 including the underhung jaw. 



* Sitzungsb. d. Gesellsch. uaturf. Freunde Berlin, 1SG3, p. 21. 

 t Op. cit. vol. i. pp. 37-39. 



Z 



