SPECIES AND VARIETIES. 673 



its mother's breast. A Shepherd's Dog, of a race inured to 

 the care of flocks of sheep, communicates to its young its 

 own habits, so that the latter only require a little educa- 

 tion to teach them their duties. But if the parents have been 

 taken to another employment, as the driving of herds of 

 cattle, their young have no such aptitude to learn, and fre- 

 quently require long and painful discipline to bring back the 

 pristine habits of the breed. Hence a rule, universally appli- 

 cable to the breeding of dogs for any specific purpose, is to 

 breed from those of a pure race, whose habits have been im- 

 printed upon it from generation to generation. 



Although discipline will do much to impress peculiar ha- 

 bitudes on dogs, yet Race has a still greater influence. The 

 Mastiff, of a peculiar breed having great muscular strength, 

 has remarkable habits of watchfulness, which his young exer- 

 cise instinctively, and without any instruction. We can 

 teach the mastiff many things, even to diving in water, and 

 the pursuing of human beings, but we cannot teach him to fol- 

 low the hare like a greyhound by the eye, to hunt in concert, 

 using the voice, like the hound, or to adopt the habits of the 

 terrier in discovering the retreat of the polecat and the badger. 

 The Barbet or Water-Dog will hunt the margins of the lake 

 or river for water-fowl, and swim and dive to bring the 

 quarry which has been wounded or killed, but he will not, 

 like the terrier, attack an animal of five times his own 

 strength, or encounter the bite of the badger and fox in their 

 subterranean dwellings. We can teach him a multitude of 

 feats for our gratification, just as we can teach a monkey to 

 walk on two legs, and imitate human actions ; but there are 

 limits to our efforts, in the physical powers and tempera- 

 ment of the animal himself, which we cannot pass. There 

 are thus races of dogs which are endowed with peculiar 

 faculties and powers, which we can cultivate to a surprising 

 extent, and which we can even cause to react, by continual 

 use, on the conformation of the animals, who, nevertheless, 

 will still retain the essential characters of their race. Fur- 



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