40 DOGS. ChapI 



with the feet of some harriers and bloodhounds ; he found the 

 skin variable in extent in all, but more developed in the otter 

 than in the other hounds. 76 As aquatic amimals which belong 

 to quite different orders have webbed feet, there can be no doubt 

 that this structure would be serviceable to dogs that frequent 

 the water. We may confidently infer that no man ever selected 

 his water-dogs by the extent to which the skin was developed 

 between their toes; but what he does, is to preserve and 

 breed from those individuals which hunt best in the water 

 or best retrieve wounded game, and thus he unconsciously 

 selects dogs with feet slightly better webbed. Man thus closely 

 imitates Natural Selection. We have an excellent illustra- 

 tion of this same process in North America, where, according 

 to Sir J. f Eichardson, 77 all the wolves, foxes, and aboriginal 

 domestic dogs have their feet broader than in the correspond- 

 ing species of the Old World, and " well calculated for running 

 on the snow." Now, in these Arctic regions, the life or death 

 of every animal will often depend on its success in hunting over 

 the snow when softened ; and this will in part depend on the 

 feet being broad; yet they must not be so broad as to inter- 

 fere with the activity of the animal when the ground is sticky, 

 or with its power of burrowing holes, or with other habits of 

 life. 



As changes in domestic breeds which take place so slowly 

 as not to be noticed at any one period, whether due to the 

 selection of individual variations or of differences resulting 

 from crosses, are most important in understanding the origin of 

 our domestic productions, and likewise in throwing indirect 

 light on the changes effected under nature, I will give in detail 

 such cases as I have been able to collect. Lawrence, 78 who 

 paid particular attention to the history of the foxhound, writing 

 in 1829, says that between eighty and ninety years before " an 

 entirely new foxhound was raised through the breeder's art," the 

 ears of the old southern hound being reduced, the bone and 

 bulk lightened, the waist increased in length, and the stature 



W See Mr. C. O. Groom-Napier on the 77 < Fauna Boreali-Americana,' 1829, 



webbing of the hind feet of Otter- p. 62. 



hounds, in 'Land and Water,' Oct. 13th, 78 i The Horse in aU his Varieties,* 



1866, p. 270. &C-} 1829) p p . 230, 234. 



