206 SELECTION. 



Chap. XX. 



" (a fine race of the dromedary) as the Arab is in that of his 

 " horse. The pedigrees are handed down, and many a dromedary 

 " can boast a genealogy far longer than the descendants of the 

 " Darley Arabian." 53 According to Pallas the Mongolians 

 endeavour to breed the Yaks or horse-tailed buffaloes with 

 white tails, for these are sold to the Chinese mandarins as 

 flappers ; and Moorcroft, about seventy years after Pallas, found 

 that white-tailed animals were still selected for breeding;. 54 



We have seen in the chapter on the Dog that savages in 

 different parts of North America and in Guiana cross their 

 dogs with wild Canidae, as did the ancient Gauls, according 

 to Pliny. This was done to give their dogs strength and 

 vigour, in the same way as the keepers in large warrens 

 now sometimes cross their ferrets (as I have been informed by 

 Mr. Yarrell) with the wild polecat, " to give them more devil." 

 According to Varro, the wild ass was formerly caught and 

 crossed with the tame animal to improve the breed, in the 

 same manner as at the present day the natives of Java sometimes 

 drive their cattle into the forests to cross with the wild Banten 







(Bos sondaicus) , 55 In Northern Siberia, among the Ostyal 

 the dogs vary in markings in different districts, but in each 

 place they are spotted black and white in a remarkably uniform 

 manner ; 56 and from this fact alone we may infer careful 

 breeding, more especially as the clogs of one locality are famed 

 throughout the country for their superiority. I have heard of 

 certain tribes of Esquimaux who take pride in their teams of 

 dogs being uniformly coloured. In Guiana, as Sir E. Schom- 

 burgk informs me, 57 the dogs of the Turuma Indians are highly 

 valued and extensively bartered : the price of a good one is the 





same as that given for a wife : they are kept in a sort of c 

 and the Indians " take great care when the female is in se 

 to prevent her uniting with a dog of an inferior descript 

 The Indians told Sir Eobert that, if a dog proved bad or use 



53 'The Great Sahara,' by the Eev. Field/ 1859, p. 196: for Varro, see 

 H. B. Tristram, 1860, p. 238. Pallas, ut supra. 



54 Pallas, « Act. Acad. St. Petersburg,' ™ Erman's < Travels in Siberia,' Eng. 

 1777, p. 249 ; Moorcroft and Trebeck, translat., vol. i. p. 453. 

 ' Travels in the Himalayan Provinces,' v See also 'Journal of K. Geograpli. 



1841. 



Quoted 



Soc.,' vol. xiii. part i. p. 65. 







