42 



DOGS. 



Chap. I. 



that, if the mastiff and English bulldog had formerly been as 

 distinct as they are at the present time (i.e. 1828), so accurate 

 an observer as the poet Gay (who was the author of 'Rural 

 Sports' in 1711) would have spoken in his Fable of the Bull 

 and the Bulldog, and not of the Bull and the Mastiff. There 

 can be no doubt that the fancy bulldogs of the present day, 

 now that they are not used for bull-baiting, have become 

 greatly reduced in size, without any express intention on the 

 part of the breeder. Our pointers are certainly descended 

 from a Spanish breed, as even their names, Don, Ponto, Carlos, 

 &c, would show : it is said that they were not known in 

 England before the Revolution in 1688 ; 82 but the breed since 

 its introduction has been much modified, for Mr. Borrow, who 

 is a sportsman and knows Spain intimately well, informs me 

 that he has not seen in that country any breed " corresponding 

 in figure with the English pointer; but there are genuine 

 pointers near Xeres which have been imported by English 

 gentlemen." A nearly parallel case is offered by the Newfound- 

 land dog, which was certainly brought into England from that 

 country, but which has since been so much modified that, as 

 several writers have observed, it does not now closely resemble 

 any existing native dog in Newfoundland. 83 



These several cases of slow and gradual changes in our English 

 dogs possess some interest ; for though the changes have generally, 

 but not invariably, been caused by one or two crosses with a 

 distinct breed, yet we may feel sure, from the well-known extreme 

 variability of crossed breeds, that rigorous and long-continued 

 selection must have been practised, in order to improve them in 

 a definite manner. As soon as any strain or family became 

 slightly improved or better adapted to altered circumstances, it 

 would tend to supplant the older and less improved strains. For 

 instance, as soon as the old foxhound was improved by a cross 

 with the greyhound, or by simple selection, and assumed its 

 present character — and the change was probably required by 



82 See Col. Hamilton Smith on the 

 antiquity of the Pointer, in * Naturalist's 

 Library,' vol. x. p. 196. 



83 The Newfoundland dog is believed 

 to have originated from a cross between 

 the Esquimaux dog and a large French 



hound. See Dr. Hodgkin, 'Brit. 

 Assoc.,' 1844; Bechstein's 'Naturgesch. 

 Deutschlands,' Band i. s. 574; 'Natu- 

 ralist's Library,' vol. x. p. 132 ; also Mr. 

 Jukes' ' Excursion in and about New- 

 foundland.' 



