38 DOGS. ChaPi l 



pointers, also, rapidly decline." But spaniels, after eight or nine 

 generations, and without a cross from Europe, are as good as their 

 ancestors. Dr. Falconer informs me that bulldogs, which have 

 been known, when first brought into the country, to pin down 

 even an elephant by its trunk, not only fall off after two or 

 three generations in pluck and ferocity, but lose the under-hung 

 character of their lower jaws ; their muzzles become finer and 

 their bodies lighter. English dogs imported into India are so 

 valuable that probably due care has been taken to prevent 

 their crossing with native dogs ; so that the deterioration cannot 

 be thus accounted for. The Eev. E. Everest informs me that he 

 obtained a pair of setters, born in India, which perfectly re- 

 sembled their Scotch "parents : he raised several litters from 

 them in Delhi, taking the most stringent precautions to 

 prevent a cross, but he never succeeded, though this was only 

 the second generation in India, in obtaining a single young dog 

 like its parents in size or make ; their nostrils were more con- 

 tracted, their noses more pointed, their size inferior, and their 

 limbs more slender. This remarkable tendency to rapid dete- 

 rioration in European dogs subjected to the climate of India, 

 may perhaps partly be accounted for by the tendency to rever- 

 sion to a primordial condition which many animals exhibit, as 

 we shall see in a future chapter, when exposed to new conditions 

 of life. 



Some of the peculiarities characteristic of the several breeds 

 of the dog have probably arisen suddenly, and, though strictly 

 inherited, may be called monstrosities ; for instance, the shape of 

 the legs and body in the turnspit of Europe and India ; the shape 

 of the head and the under-hanging jaw in the bull and pug-dog, 

 so alike in this one respect and so unlike in all others. A 

 peculiarity suddenly arising, and therefore in one sense deserv- 

 ing to be called a monstrosity, may, however, be increased and 

 fixed by man's selection. We can hardly doubt that long- 

 continued training, as with the greyhound in coursing hares, as 

 with water-dogs in swimming — and the want of exercise, in the 

 case of lapdogs— must have produced some direct effect on their 

 structure and instincts. But we shall immediately see that the 

 most potent cause of change has probably been the selection, both 

 methodical and unconscious, of slight individual differences,— the 



