580 THE NEW 
the bullring, that the Collie’s ears are 
erected to assist him in hearing sounds from 
afar, as those of the Bloodhound are pen- 
dant, the more readily to detect sounds 
coming to him along the ground while his 
head is bent to the trail. Dogs that hunt 
by scent have long muzzles to give space 
to their olfactory organs. Hounds that 
hunt in packs carry their sterns gaily for 
signalling to their companions. Rough, 
oily hair is given to water dogs as a pro- 
tection against wet, as the Collie’s ample 
coat protects him from snow and rain. 
Nature has been discriminate in her adapta- 
tions of animal forms, and the most perfect 
dog yet bred is the one which approaches 
nearest to Nature’s wise intention. 
But when man’s requirements have not 
been wholly met by Nature’s crude designs, 
he has found it expedient to introduce his 
artificial processes, and to adapt what he 
has found to the purposes which he has 
himself created. 
The foregoing chapters have given abun- 
dant examples of how the various breeds 
of the dog have been acquired, manufac- 
tured, improved, resuscitated, and retained. 
Broadly speaking, two methods have been 
adopted: The method of introducing an 
outcross to impart new blood, new strength, 
new character; and the method of inbreed- 
ing to retain an approved type. An out- 
cross is introduced when the breed operated 
upon is declining in stamina or is in danger 
of extinction, as when the Irish Wolfhound 
was crossed with the Great Dane and the 
St. Bernard with the dog of the Pyrenees; 
or when some new physical or mental 
quality is desired, as when the Greyhound, 
lacking in dash, was crossed with the Bull- 
dog to give him greater pluck. When 
this is done, and the alien blood has been 
borrowed, it is usual to breed back again 
to the original strain, which thus profits 
without being materially marred by the 
admixture. The plan may be exercised for 
a variety of reasons, as, for example, if 
you desired to introduce a race of pure 
white Collies, you might attain your end by 
crossing a chosen bitch with a snowy 
Samoyede; or if you wished to put prick 
ears on your Old English Sheepdog you 
could do it by crossing one with a French 
Chien de Brie. New types and eccentrici- 
BOOK 
OF THE DOG, 
ties are hardly wanted, however, and the 
extreme requirements of an outcross may 
nowadays be achieved by the simple pro- 
cess of selecting individuals from differing 
strains of the same breed, mating a bitch 
which lacks the required points with a dog 
in whose family they are prominently and 
consistently present. 
Inbreeding is the reverse of outcrossing. 
It is the practice of mating animals closely 
related to each other, and it is, within 
limits, an entirely justifiable means of pre- 
serving and intensifying family character- 
istics. It is alaw in zoology that an animal 
cannot transmit a quality which it does not 
itself innately possess, or which none of its 
progenitors have ever possessed. By 
mating a dog and a bitch of the same 
family, therefore, you concentrate and en- 
hance the uniform inheritable qualities into 
one line instead of two, and you reduce the 
number of possibly heterogeneous ancestors 
by exactly a half right back to the verv 
beginning. There is no surer way of 
maintaining uniformity of type, and an 
examination of the extended pedigree of 
almost any famous dog will show how com- 
monly inbreeding is practised. In many 
aristocratic breeds, indeed, it is not casv 
to discover two dogs who are not descended 
from an identical source, and_ breeders 
anxious to secure litters of an invariable 
type purposely contrive the mating of near 
relatives. Inbreeding is certainly advan- 
tageous when managed with judgment and 
discreet selection, but it has its disadvan- 
tages also, for it is to be remembered that 
faults and blemishes are inherited as well 
as merits, and that the faults have a way 
of asserting themselves with annoying per- 
sistency. Furthermore, breeding between 
animals closely allied in parentage is prone 
to lead to degeneracy, physical weakness, 
and mental stupidity, while impotence and 
sterility are frequent concomitants, and 
none but experienced breeders should 
attempt so hazardous an experiment. Ob- 
servation has proved that the union of 
father with daughter and mother with son 
is preferable to an alliance between brother 
and sister. Perhaps the best union is that 
between cousins. For the preservation of 
general type, however, it ought to be sufh- 
cient to keep to one strain and to select 
