DOMESTIC Doo.] T li MOUNTAIN, FIELJ), AND FARM, [bo^tch collet. 



CHAPTER IV. 



THE DOMESTIC DOO. — PASTORAL UOGS AND TERRIERS. 



"Domestication," says Mr, Blaiuc, "proves 

 a powerful agent in promoting various changes 

 from the original form, characters, and liabits 

 of quadrupeds. By its agency they are en- 

 larged to monstrosities, or diminished to pig- 

 mies ; it even operates ia the increase or 

 decrease of the organs themselves. A breed 

 of tailless cats and curtailed dogs has been 

 perpetuated. The horns of cattle, essential as 

 they are to the animals in their wild state, are 

 dispensed with when the animals themselves 

 are taken under the protection of man ; and 

 polled breeds of oxen and sheep are now com- 

 mon among us. We have an instance of the 

 former in the Galloway bull. Neither need 

 we wonder at these changes, great as they are, 

 when we consider how numerous and how^ 

 potent are the agents which the artiiice and 

 experience of man enable him to employ. In- 

 deed, man himself, thougli apparently a free 

 agent, is no longer the same being that he was 

 when he lived in a pure state of nature. His 

 external characters are much changed; while 

 internally he is subjected to morbid alterations 

 unknown to savages. Neither is it to be won- 

 dered at that the controlling power of man 

 should be so influential, extending as it does ' 

 over every important circumstance connected 

 with the beasts around him. Man regulates j 

 at his pleasure the quantity and quality of their 

 food ; he also governs all their motions, and 

 restrains their exercise to close confinement, 

 or increases it to great and continued exertions. 

 Even the temperature they reside in is raised 

 or lowered at the will of the owner ; and still 

 jurther and more important restraint is put 

 on them by regulating their sexual intercourse, 

 wiiich insures the perpetuation of almost any 

 desired form, by allowing the propagation 

 only between such individuals as approach the 

 nearest tliereto. In other instances, an acci- 

 dental variation which may have occurred, or 

 i singular deformity, has been seized on and 

 propagated by future similar selections, until 

 it became permanent, and tlieu it constitutes 



a breed. To something of this kind wo owe 

 the wry-logged terriers ; and it is probable, 

 also, tliat a crooked mastilf ofl'ered the founda- 

 tion for the bulldog." 



THE SCOTCH COLLEY. 



One of the theories to which we have alluded 

 is that of ascribing the original dog to the 

 pastoral or shepherd's breed, known in Scot- 

 land, and the north of England, as the Colley. 

 However this may be, this species is certainly 

 one of the most sagacious of all descriptions of 

 dogs. Anecdotes, well authenticated, of his 

 performances, would of themselves make a 

 bulky volume. In the structure of the feet of 

 this species of dog, there is a peculiarity which 

 has attracted the observation of the naturalist. 

 Mr. llichardson describes it as consisting of a 

 greater or smaller number of supplemental 

 toes or appendages, called " dew-claws," and 

 situated at the hinder part of the foot. Tlie 

 pointer, the spaniel, and all dogs which prey 

 upon ground game, without running it down 

 in the chase, are possessed of these appendages, 

 which evince, in a striking manner, the ad- 

 mirable care which Nature takes to adapt 

 every animal to the duties which it has to 

 perform. " They are soft and pendent," says 

 i Mr. Eichardson, "but do not act by means of 

 muscles, like the toes properly so called, but 

 are a sort of fringe to the back part of the- 

 foot. In walking on hard surfaces they are of 

 no use ; and as they are liable to be torn and 

 lacerated in beating among bushes, and thus 

 to cripple the animals — for wounds in the feet 

 of dogs are more injurious to them than in any 

 other part of their Vodies — they are cut oft' in 

 sporting dogs wheii very young; but in shep- 

 herds' dogs, and in pastoral dogs generally, 

 they are allowed to remain; and in the hill 

 pastures especially, which are interspersed with 

 bogs, and places between the hummocks of 

 yrasd which consist of soft and sludgy peat, 

 these dew-claws, by spreading out to their whole 

 length by a little pressure, greatly extend the 



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