Chap. I. MEANS OF MODIFICATION. 39 



latter kind of selection resulting from the occasional preservation, 

 during hundreds of generations, of those individual dogs which 

 were the most useful to man for certain purposes and under 

 certain conditions of life. In a future chapter on Selection I 

 shall show that even barbarians attend closely to the qualities of 

 their dogs. This unconscious selection by man would be aided 

 by a kind of natural selection; for the dogs of savages have 

 partly to gain their own subsistence ; for instance, in Australia, 

 as we hear from Mr. Kind, 73 the dogs are sometimes compelled 

 by want to leave their masters and provide for themselves-; 

 but in a few days they generally return. And we may infer 

 that dogs of different shapes, sizes, and habits, would have 

 the best chance of surviving under different circumstances, — 

 on open, sterile plains, where they have to run down their 

 own prey, — on rocky coasts, where they have to feed on crabs 

 and fish left in the tidal pools, as in the case of New Guinea 

 and Tierra del Fuego. In this latter country, as I am informed 

 by Mr. Bridges, the Catechist to the Mission, the dogs turn over 

 the stones on the shore to catch the crustaceans which lie 

 beneath, and they " are clever enough to knock off the shell-fish 

 at a first blow;" for if this be not done, shell-fish are well 

 known to have an almost invincible power of adhesion. 



It has already been remarked that dogs differ in the degree 

 to which their feet are webbed. In dogs of the Newfoundland 

 breed, which are eminently aquatic in their habits, the skin, ac- 

 cording to Isidore Geoffroy, 74 extends to the third phalanges, whilst 

 in ordinary dogs it extends only to the second. In two Newfound- 

 land dogs which I examined, when the toes were stretched 

 apart and viewed on the under side, the skin extended in 

 a nearly straight line between the outer margins of the balls 

 of the toes ; whereas, in two terriers of distinct sub-breeds, the 

 skin viewed in the same manner was deeply scooped out. In 

 Canada there is a dog which is peculiar to the country and 

 common there, and this has "half-webbed feet and is fond of 

 the water." 75 English otter-hounds are said to have webbed 

 feet: a friend examined for me the feet of two, in comparison 



73 Quotedby Mr. Galton, 'Domesti- ^ Mr. Greenhow on the Canadian 



ca ion of Animals p. 3 Dog> in Loudon , s , of ^ Hist.,' 



7* Hist. Nat. Gen.,' torn. iii. p. 450. vo i. vi., 1833, p. 511 



