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[Illustration: AFRICAN ELEPHANT]
DOMESTICATED ANIMALS
THEIR RELATION TO MAN AND TO HIS
ADVANCEMENT IN CIVILIZATION
BY
NATHANIEL SOUTHGATE SHALER
DEAN OF THE LAWRENCE SCIENTIFIC SCHOOL OF
HARVARD UNIVERSITY
_ILLUSTRATED_
NEW YORK
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
1908
COPYRIGHT, 1895, BY
CHARLES SCRIBNER'S SONS
CONTENTS
PAGE
INTRODUCTION, 1
THE DOG
Ancestry of the Domesticated Dogs.--Early Uses of the Animal:
Variations induced by Civilization.--Shepherd-dogs: their
Peculiarities; other Breeds.--Possible Intellectual
Advances.--Evils of Specialized Breeding.--Likeness of Emotions
of Dogs to those of Man: Comparison with other Domesticated
Animals.--Modes of Expression of Emotions in Dogs.--Future
Development of this Species.--Comparison of Dogs and Cats as
regards Intelligence and Position in Relation to Man, 11
THE HORSE
Value of the Strength of the Horse to Man.--Origin of the
Horse.--Peculiar Advantage of the Solid Hoof.--Domestication
of the Horse.--How begun.--Use as a Pack Animal.--For
War.--Peculiar Advantages of the Animal for Use of Men.--Mental
Peculiarities.--Variability of Body.--Spontaneous Variations
due to Climate.--Variations of Breeds.--Effect of the Invention
of Horseshoes.--Donkeys and Mules compared with Horse.--Especial
Value of these Animals.--Diminishing Value of Horses in Modern
Civilization.--Continued Need of their Service in War, 57
THE FLOCKS AND HERDS: BEASTS FOR BURDEN,
FOOD, AND RAIMENT
Effect of this Group of Animals on Man.--First Subjugations.--Basis
of Domesticability.--Horned Cattle.--Wool-bearing Animals.--Sheep
and Goats.--Camels: their Limitation.--Elephants: Ancient History;
Distribution; Intelligence; Use in the Arts; Need of True
Domestication.--Pigs: their Peculiar Economic Value; Modern
Varieties; Mental Qualities.--Relation of the Development of
Domesticable Animals to the Time of Man's Appearance on the Earth, 103
DOMESTICATED BIRDS
Domestication of Animals mainly accomplished by the Aryan Race;
Small Amount of Such Work by American Indians.--Barnyard Fowl:
Mental Qualities; Habits of Combat.--Peacocks: their Limited
Domestication.--Turkeys: their Origin; tending to revert to the
Savage State.--Water Fowl: Limited Number of Species domesticated;
Intellectual Qualities of this Group.--The Pigeon: Origin and
History of Group; Marvels of Breeding.--Song Birds.--Hawks and
Hawking.--Sympathetic Motive of Birds: their AEsthetic Sense;
their Capacity for Enjoyment, 152
USEFUL INSECTS
Relations of Men to Insect World.--But Few Species Useful to
Man.--Little Trace of Domestication.--Honey-bees: their Origin;
Reasons for no Selective Work; Habits of the Species.--Silkworms:
Singular Importance to Man.--Intelligence of Species.--Cochineal
Insect.--Spanish Flies.--Future of Man relative to Useful Insects, 190
THE RIGHTS OF ANIMALS
Recent Understanding as to the Rights of Animals; Nature of these
Rights; their Origin in Sympathy.--Early State of Sympathetic
Emotions.--Place of Statutes concerning Animal Rights.--Present
and Future of Animal Rights.--Question of Vivisection.--Rights of
Domesticated Animals to Proper Care; to Enjoyment.--Ends of the
Breeder's Art.--Moral Position of the Hunter.--Probable
Development of the Protecting Motive as applied to Animals, 204
THE PROBLEM OF DOMESTICATION
The Conditions of Domestication; Effects on Society; Share of the
Races of Men in the Work.--Evils of Non-Intercourse with
Domesticated Animals as in Cities; Remedies.--Scientific Position
of Domestication; Future of the Art.--List of Species which may
Advantageously be Domesticated.--Peculiar Value of the Birds and
Mammals.--Importance of Groups which tenant High Latitudes.--Plan
for Wilderness Reservations; Relation to National Parks.--Project
for International System of Reservations.--Nature of Organic
Provinces; Harm done to them by Civilized Men.--Way in which
Reservations would Serve to Maintain Types of the Life of
the Earth; how they may be Founded.--Summary and Conclusions, 218
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
PAGE
FULL-PAGE ILLUSTRATIONS
AFRICAN ELEPHANT, _Frontispiece_
SHEEP-DOGS GUARDING A FLOCK AT NIGHT, 10
HOUNDS RUNNING A WILD BOAR, 53
ON ROTTEN ROW, HYDE PARK, LONDON, 63
CAVALRY HORSE, 71
A HURDLE JUMPER, 79
ENGLISH POLO PONIES, 89
WINNOWING GRAIN IN EGYPT, 111
THE HALT IN THE DESERT AT NIGHT--THE STORY TELLER, 121
CARRYING THE SUGAR CANE IN HARVEST--EGYPT, 125
FEEDING SILKWORMS WITH MULBERRY LEAVES IN JAPAN, 193
THE FARMER'S APIARY, 199
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
GREYHOUND AFTER "THE KILL," 13
ST. BERNARD, 15
SPANIEL RETRIEVING WILD DUCK, 17
BULL-DOG, 22
FOX-HOUND AND PUPS, 25
POINTER RETRIEVING A FALLEN BIRD, 26
POINTER AND SETTER, FLUSHING GAME, 27
DUTCH DOGS USED IN HARNESS, 30
KING CHARLES SPANIEL, 33
THE POUNCE OF A TERRIER, 35
POMERANIAN OR "SPITZ," 38
POODLES, 39
COLLIE, 41
A HUNTER, 60
HORSE OF A BULGARIAN MARAUDER, 67
MARE AND FOAL, 68
PLOUGH HORSES, FRANCE, 73
BELGIAN FISHERMAN'S HORSE, 76
HORSES FOR TOWING ON THE BEACH IN HOLLAND, 78
EXERCISING THE THOROUGHBREDS, 84
AN ARABIAN HORSE, 85
ARABIAN SPORTS, 86
SYRIAN HORSE, 92
IN THE CIRCUS, 96
DOMESTICATED BUFFALOES IN EGYPT, 104
CATTLE OF INDIA, 105
INDIAN BULLOCK AND WATER-CARRIER, 108
PLOUGHING IN SYRIA, 109
EGYPTIAN SHEEP, 114
BEDOUIN GOAT-HERD--PALESTINE, 116
THE GREAT CARAVAN ROAD--CENTRAL ASIA, 119
CAMELS FEEDING, 123
CAMELS ALONG THE SEA AT TWILIGHT, 127
AN INDIAN ELEPHANT, 134
THE ORIGINAL JUNGLE FOWL (_Gallus bankiva_) AND SOME OF HIS
DOMESTIC DESCENDANTS, 153
HOUDIN, COCHINS, LEGHORNS, AND GAME, 158
BANTAMS, BRAHMA, AND DORKINGS, 160
CONTRIBUTIONS FROM ASIA, AFRICA, AND AMERICA--PEACOCKS,
GUINEA-FOWL, AND TURKEY, 163
THE DOMESTICATED TURKEY, 165
THE LARGEST OF ALL POULTRY--THE OSTRICH, 168
AN EIDER COLONY, 170
TERNS AIDING A WOUNDED COMRADE, 171
SOME RECENT ADDITIONS TO THE POULTRY YARD, 173
SWANS, 174
THE ORIGINAL WILD ROCK DOVE (_Columba livia_) AND SOME OF ITS
DOMESTIC DESCENDANTS, 175
TURTLE DOVES, 177
THE GIANT CROWNED PIGEON OF INDIA, 178
THE ENGLISH PHEASANT, 181
THE FALCONER'S FAVORITE--PEREGRINE FALCON, 184
THE BANDIT'S BROOD, 186
DOMESTICATED ANIMALS
INTRODUCTION
One of the effects of the modern advance in natural science has been
greatly to increase the attention which is devoted to the influences
that the conditions of diverse peoples have had upon their development.
Man is no longer looked upon, as he was of old, as a being which had
been imposed upon the earth in a sudden and arbitrary manner, set to
rule the world into which he had been sent as a master. We now see him
as one of the myriad species which has won its way by powers of mind out
of darkness and the great struggle to the place of command. The way in
which this creature, weak in body and exceedingly dependent on his
surroundings, has in the modern geologic epoch come forth from the mass
of the lower animals, is by far the most impressive and as yet the most
unexplained phenomenon which the geologist has to consider. It is not
likely that the marvellous advancement can be accounted for by any
single cause; it is probably due, as are most of the great evolutions,
to the concurrence of many influences; but among these which make for
advance, we clearly have to reckon the animals and plants which man has
learned to associate with his work of the household and the fields.
Although certain species of insects, particularly the ants, have the
well-developed habit of subjugating certain creatures of their own
family, man is the only vertebrate that has ever adopted the plan of
domesticating a variety of animals and plants. The beginnings of this
custom were made in a very remote time, and for long ages the profit
which was thereby gained appears to have been but slight. Gradually,
however, races, owing to their masterful quality and to the
opportunities which were offered by the wild life about their dwelling
places, obtained flocks and herds. In the group of continents commonly
termed the old world, where there were several ancient primitive peoples
of innate ability, and where there were many species of larger mammals
which were well fitted for domestication, the advance in social
development went on rapidly. In the new world, though the primitive
races contained tribes of much ability, there was practically no chance
for the people to add to their strength by the subjugation of beasts of
burden, or to their food resources by the adoption of various animals
which could be used for the needs of food or raiment. The advance of men
when they have obtained valuable domesticated animals, and their failure
to win a high station where the surrounding nature denied such
opportunities, go far to prove the bearing of this accomplishment in the
development of peoples.
A little consideration makes it evident to us that the advance of
mankind above the original savage state is in several ways favored by
the possession of domesticated animals. In the first place, each
creature which is adopted into the household or the fields usually
brings as its tribute a substantial contribution to the resources which
tend to make the society commercially successful. When we consider the
enlargements of resources and the diversification of industries which
rest upon the adoption of any one of these animals--as, for instance,
the horse--we see in a way what the possession of domesticated animals
and plants really means, and are in a position to conceive, though at
best but dimly, what the scores of these captive species have done for
us. We recognize the fact that while, under almost any conditions, a
certain manner of advance above the most primitive savagery is possible
to a naturally able people, this on-going cannot lead any distance
unless the folk have other help than their own weak bodies can give
them. It is hardly too much to say that civilization has intimately
depended on the subjugation of a great range of useful species.
It would be interesting to trace, if we could, what share the several
domesticated animals have had in the development of the human races; but
this task is not to be done. We can, however, discern that the Arab
without the camel and the horse would not have found the place in
history which he has filled, and that our own race could not have
attained its place save for the aid which the horned cattle, sheep, and
a host of other helpers which we have pressed into service, have
afforded. These economic gains have to be judged in mass, they cannot be
reckoned in detail. When we have made the best account of them we can,
there remains another class of influences, the value of which, though
evidently great, is yet harder to reckon; these arise from the education
which has been attained through the care of these adopted creatures.
Among savages the great need is a training in forethoughtfulness; all
primitive peoples are like children, they live in the interests of the
day; the cares of the seasons to come, or even of the morrow, are not
for them. The possession of domesticated animals certainly did much to
break up this old brutal way of life; it led to a higher sense of
responsibility to the care of the household; it brought about systematic
agriculture; it developed the art of war; it laid the foundations of
wealth and commerce, and so set men well upon their upward way.
Moreover, the use of domesticated animals of the better sort enabled the
more vigorous and care-taking races to gain the strength which led to
their advancement in power to a point where they were able to displace
the lower and feebler tribes. In other words, the system of
domestication has provided a method by which those peoples who were
fitted to develop the qualities which make for civilization could
advance; it has provided the opportunity for selection.
Of all the influences which have been exercised on man by the care of
his flocks, herds, and droves, perhaps the most important is that which
has arisen from the broader development of his sympathies. The savage
may be defined as a man who cares only for his family and his tribe; the
civilized man as one whose kindly interest extends to mankind and beyond
to all sentient beings. In the development of this altruistic motive the
care of the dependent species has evidently been most effective. We note
that the peoples who have attained the first upward step in the
association with domesticated animals are in their quality, so far as
tested by literature and history, much above the mere savage. With the
care of the flocks we find associated poetry, the first notes of higher
religious motives, and a largeness of the sympathetic life which is
favored by the nature of the occupation. Where the nomadic habits of the
original shepherds pass into the more sedentary state of the soil
tiller, the element of personal care and the affection and the
consequent education of the sympathy were increased. Men had now to care
for half a dozen or more kinds of animals; they had to learn their ways,
in a manner to put themselves in their places and conceive their needs.
Thus the life of a farmer is a continual lesson in the art of sympathy;
with the result, certainly in part due to this cause, that there is no
class of people from whom the brutal instincts of the ancient savage
life which we all inherit have been so completely eradicated.
It is perhaps too much to attribute the advance of the agricultural
classes of our civilized peoples, in all that serves to remove them from
the brutality of their savage ancestors, altogether to the nature of
their work--to the very large element of kindly care for which it calls,
and which is the price of success in the occupation. Yet when we note
the immediate way in which the people bred in cities, under
circumstances of excitement are wont to behave like savages of the lower
kind, showing in their conduct a lack of all sympathetic education, and
contrast their behavior with that of their kinsmen from the fields--we
see essential differences in character which cannot well be explained
save by the diverse natures of the training which the men have received.
Thus in the French Revolution, the baser, more inhuman deeds were not
committed by the peasants, who had been the principal sufferers under
the regime which was overthrown, but by the people of the great towns
who had been less oppressed by the iniquities of the old system of
government.
If it be true--as my personal experiences and observations lead me
firmly to believe is the case--that man's contact with the domesticated
animals has been and is ever to be one of the most effective means
whereby his sympathetic, his civilized motives may be broadened and
affirmed, there is clearly reason for giving to this side of life a
larger share of attention than it has received. So far the presence of
these lower creatures in our society has generally been accepted as a
matter of course. Sentimentalists, after the fashion of Laurence Sterne,
have dwelt upon the imaginary woes of the creatures. Associations of
well-meaning people have endeavored to diminish the cruelty which people
of the towns, rarely those bred on the soil, often inflict upon them. It
seems, however, desirable that we should place this consideration upon a
plane more fitting the knowledge of our time. It should be made plain,
not only that the success of our civilization depends now as in the past
on the cooperation which mankind has had from the domesticated animals,
but also that the development of this relation is one of the most
interesting features in all history. On through the ages of the geologic
past comes this great procession of life, in the endless succession of
species whose numbers in the aggregate are to be reckoned by the scores,
if not by the hundreds of millions. Until this modern age, the throng
goes forward blindly, groping its way towards the higher planes of life.
At length certain of the more advanced forms attain to a measure of
intellectual elevation. Still, for all this advance, the life is not
organized so as to attain any large ends; no society arises from it.
Suddenly, in the last geological epoch, man, the descendant of a group
which like all others had led the narrow life of the preparatory ages,
appears upon the scene. At first, and in his lower human estate, his
position was not noticeably higher than that of his kindred, but there
was in him the seed of a great unlikeness, of very new things, in that
his desires had an element of the unlimited which was to grow apace, and
in time to make him greedy of on-going. As this innovating creature
sought for agents of power in the wilderness about him, he blindly laid
hands upon such of the fellow tenants of the wilds as might serve his
immediate needs. This species, both animals and plants, endowed with the
capacity for variation, the plasticity which is in general a
characteristic of all organic forms, were early led by their new master,
as of old they had been guided by the old organic laws. They changed
according to his choice, abandoning their ancient ways for the novel
paths of civilization. With this association of the higher forms of the
earth under the leadership of man, there began an entirely new and
unprecedented condition of the world's affairs. In place of the ancient
law of nature there came the control of our species which had been, in a
way, chosen to be the overlord of life.
At first, the number of species of animals and plants which man brought
under his control was very limited; it was indeed confined to those
which might readily be subjugated to meet immediate needs. Gradually,
however, the list has been extended until it included thousands of
forms, which, while they meet no need such as the savage recognizes, are
gratifying to the taste or the ambitions of civilized peoples. These
aesthetic devices, or those of necessity, are advancing so rapidly that
each generation sees hundreds of new animal and plant species added to
our living collections, so that our plant and animal gardens now contain
a large share of the more attractive forms which are to be found in the
various geographical realms. Our tilled fields yield perhaps a hundred
times as many varieties of plants as they did in the earliest historic
agriculture. The advance in the process of domestication is not so rapid
as regards the animal kingdom as it is with the realm of plants, and
this mainly for the reason that animals have a will of their own which
has to be bent or broken to that of man. Still it goes on apace. We of
to-day have at our command many times the number of sentient species
contributive to our pleasure or profit that had been made captive at the
beginning of our era. Naturally, in the early days of domestication, men
brought under their control the greater number of the animals which gave
promise of utility. As no new species of any economic importance have
been created within the last geologic period, the field for the
extension of economic domestication has of late been very limited. But
the realm of sympathetic appreciation, unlike the economic, knows no
definite bounds, and promises in time to bring all the more important
organic forms under the care of the sympathetic and masterful being who
has been chosen as the ruler of terrestrial life.
We thus see that the matter of domesticated animals is but a part of the
larger problem which includes all that relates to man's destined mastery
of the earth--a mastery which he is rapidly winning. It means that, in
time, a large part of the life of this sphere is to be committed to his
care, to survive or perish as he wills, to change at his bidding, to
give, as other subjugated kinds have done, whatever of profit or
pleasure they may contribute to his endless advancement. From this point
of view our domesticated creatures should be presented to our people,
with the purpose in mind of bringing them to see that the process of
domestication has a far-reaching aspect, a dignity, we may fairly say a
grandeur, that few human actions possess. If we can impress this view,
it will be certain to awaken men to a larger sense of their
responsibility for, and their duty by, the creatures which we have taken
from their olden natural state into the social order. It will, at the
same time, enlarge our conceptions of our own place in the order of this
world.
In the following pages little effort has been made to present those
facts concerning domesticated animals which would commonly be reckoned
as scientific. The several essays which, in larger part, were separately
printed in Scribner's Magazine, are intended for those persons who,
while they may not care to approach the matter in the manner of the
professional inquirer, are glad to have the results which naturalists
have attained, so far as they may serve to extend knowledge of things
which lie in the field of familiar experiences. To the text as it at
first appeared, numerous additions have been made, and the concluding
chapters, on the Rights of Animals, and on the Problem of Domestication,
are new. In them an effort is made to direct attention to the importance
of the problem of man's relation to the lower life which is about him,
and which in the future far more than in the past is to be helped or
hindered by his rule. Our life is made up of large problems; but there
seem few that are greater than this, which concerns our duty by the
creatures that share with us the blessings of existence, and over which
we have come to rule.
[Illustration: Sheep-Dogs Guarding a Flock at Night]
THE DOG
Ancestry of the Domesticated Dogs.--Early Uses of the Animal:
Variations induced by Civilization.--Shepherd-dogs: their
Peculiarities; other Breeds.--Possible Intellectual Advances.--Evils
of Specialized Breeding.--Likeness of Emotions of Dogs to those of
Man: Comparison with other Domesticated Animals.--Modes of
Expression of Emotions in Dogs.--Future Development of this
Species.--Comparison of Dogs and Cats as regards Intelligence and
Position in Relation to Man.
It is an interesting fact that the first creature which man won to
domesticity was made captive and friend for the sake of companionship
rather than for any grosser profit. The dog was, the world over, the
first living possession of man beyond the limits of his own kindred. He
has been so long separated from the primitive species whence he sprang
that we cannot trace with any certainty his kinship with the creatures
of the wilderness. Like his master he has become so artificialized that
it is hard to conjecture what his original state may have been.
Naturalists are much divided in opinion in all that relates to the
origin of our ancient and common domesticated animals; and this for the
reason that the longer a creature has been subjected to the
change-bringing conditions of our fields and households, the further it
has departed from the parent stock. This difficulty is naturally the
greatest in the case of the dogs, for the reason that they have been
longer and more completely under the control of man than any other of
the lower animals. Some students of the problem have inclined to the
opinion that the dog is a descendant of the wolf; the whelps of this
species, it is supposed, were captured by primitive men and brought
under domestication. Savages, like children, are much given to bringing
the young of wild animals to their homes; if the conditions are
favorable they will care for these captives, even if the charge upon
their resources is tolerably heavy. With most primitive people, however,
life is so vagarious and starvation so recurrent that they are not apt
to retain their pets long enough to establish domesticated forms. Thus,
among our American Indians, though they show fondness for wild creatures
as much as any other people, no species save the dog ever became
permanently associated with their tribe. It is, however, possible, that
in some sedentary group of savages the work of domesticating the
ancestors of the dog, even if they were wolf-like, was accomplished.
The difficulty of this view is that even with the high measure of care
which the conditions of civilization permit us to devote to the
effort, it has been found impossible to educate captive wolves to the
point where they show any affection for their masters, or are in the
least degree useful in the arts of the household or the occupations of
the chase. They are, in fact, indomitably fierce and utterly
self-regarding. It seems unreasonable to believe that any savage would
have found either pleasure or profit from an effort to tame any of the
known species of wolves. Moreover, the fact that dogs show little or
no tendency to revert to the form and habits of their brutal kindred,
or to interbreed with them, is clearly against the supposition that
there is any close relation between the creatures.
[Illustration: Greyhound after "the Kill"]
Yet other speculative inquirers have sought the origin of the dog
through the admixture of the blood of several different species, the
wolf and the jackal being, perhaps, the principal or the only components
of the hybrid stock. Here, too, the evidence of nature is against the
supposition. No one has ever succeeded in hybridizing the wolf and the
jackal, nor do our dogs show any more tendency to revert to the jackal
than to the wolf. They meet their tropical relative with as much
animosity as is proper, or at least customary, in the intercourse of
allied yet distinct species. In fact, all the indices by which we are
able to carry back the history of other domesticated animals to their
primitive or even extinct ancestry, fail in the case of the dog. When
the stock is allowed to go as nearly wild as they can be induced to
become, we do not find that they thereby approach to any known wild
form. It therefore seems reasonable to betake ourselves to another
basis for the natural history of the dog, which has not yet been made a
matter of much inquiry, but which promises to afford us more substantial
truth than the conjectures which we have just considered.
We should, in the first place, note the fact that the ancestors of our
more important domesticated animals, those which have been longest in
subjugation, have commonly disappeared from the wild state--the species,
except for the cultivated forms, having gone into the irrecoverable
past. This is the case with the wild kindred of our bulls, horses,
sheep, and camels, there probably being none of the original wild
species of these groups now living, except those which have been more
or less completely subjugated by man, and then have returned to the
wilderness. The fact is, that with any large mammal the domestication
of the species tends to bring about the destruction of the remaining
wild forms. If we go back in fancy to the time when the dog was taken
in from the wilderness, we readily perceive how certainly the
subjugated individuals would have mingled with their wild kindred, so
that either the wild would have become tame or _vice versa_. The same
incompatibility which exists between slavery and freedom in our own
species in any given territory may be said to hold in the case of
captive animals. It is particularly on this account that I am disposed
to think that our races of dogs have been derived from one or more
original species of truly canine ancestors, the wild forms of which
have long since disappeared from the earth.
[Illustration: St. Bernard]
Although there are no species of wild dogs now in existence to which we
can refer the origin of our household friends, there are several known
to us only in their fossil state, from which they may possibly--indeed,
we may say probably--have been derived. These creatures are, of course,
represented only by their skeletons, and even these remains have only
been found in an imperfect state of preservation. It is evident,
however, that these extinct species, or at least certain of them, lived
down to the time when man had come upon the earth, and was beginning to
speculate on his surroundings for such company and help as he might win
therefrom. It may interest the reader to know that a species of American
dog existed in the Southern Appalachians down to a very recent
time--recent, at least, in a geological sense. The remains of one of
these animals were found by the writer in a cave in East Tennessee, near
Cumberland Gap. From the fragments of the skeleton, Mr. J. A. Allen has
described the species. The animal appears to have been of moderate
size, and, from the position of the bones, it seems tolerably certain
that it lived but a few centuries ago.
It is clearly a reasonable supposition that some of these primitive
canine species may have been far more domesticable than the existing
kindred of the dog--the wolves, foxes, jackals, or hyenas--differing
from their fiercer kindred much as the zebras do from the wild asses,
the one form being utterly undomesticable, and the other lending its
back almost willingly to the burdens which man chooses to impose. It
seems likely that this primitive species--perhaps more than one--whence
the dog sprang was not a very vigorous or widespread form; else, as
before remarked, a savage would have found it impossible to keep his
half-tamed creatures from rejoining their wild kinsmen. Thus, if a man
should in this day succeed in taming wolves, in a region where they were
plenty, to the point where they began to abide his presence, or even to
have some slight affection for him, the call of nature would be likely
to lead them back to reunion with their kind.
It seems pretty certain that the first steps in the domestication of the
dog must be attributed not to any distinct purpose of acquiring a useful
companion, but to that vague instinct which leads children to make
captives of any wild animals with which they come in contact. The fancy
for pets is not only common to all mankind, civilized and savage alike,
but is clearly exhibited in many of the mammals below the level of man.
Almost every one has observed cases where dogs, cats, and horses have
become attached to some creature of an alien species with which they
have been by chance thrown in contact. The higher the grade of the
intelligence, the more sympathetic with other life the animal is likely
to become. Thus the elephants, whose natural endowments in the way of
intelligence are perhaps superior to those of any other wild creatures,
are, when brought into captivity, curiously prone to form attachments to
human beings. Savages appear to make but little use of their dogs in
hunting. In fact, those peculiar combinations of instinct and training
which we find in our hounds, pointers, setters, and other dogs which
have been bred to serve the purposes of sportsmen, have been acquired
but slowly, and are of no value except where the search for game is
carried on under what we may term civilized conditions. The dog of the
savage is in all countries much like his master--a creature with few
arts and unaccustomed to subdue his rude native impulses.
[Illustration: Spaniel Retrieving Wild Duck]
It seems most likely that for ages the principal use of the dog which
dwelt about the camps of the primitive people was found in the reserve
food supply which they afforded their thriftless masters. When the
hunting was successful the poor brutes had a chance to wax fat, and
even in times of scarcity they managed to pick up enough food to keep
them alive. When their masters were brought to a state of famine they
were doubtless accustomed, as are many savages at the present time, to
eat a portion of their pack. In the early conditions of humanity there
was no other beast which could be made to serve so well this simple
need in the way of provender. The dog is, in fact, the only animal
ever domesticated which can be trusted through his own affections
alone to abide with his master in the endless changes of camp and the
rapid movements of flight and chase which characterized men before
their housed state began. In a certain curious way the use of dogs for
food has served greatly to advance the development of these captives.
When the savage was driven to feed upon his dogs he was naturally more
willing to sacrifice the least intelligent and affectionate of them,
delaying, to the point of extremity, the time when he would kill those
which had endeared themselves to him. In this way for ages a careful
though unintended process of selection was applied to these creatures,
and to it we may fairly attribute, as many considerate naturalists
have done, a large part of the intellectual--indeed, we may say
moral--elevation to which they have attained.
When the place of the dog as the first and most intimate companion of
man was affirmed in the rude way above described--when the savagery to
which he was at first made free gradually enlarged to civilization, a
number of special uses were found for the peculiar capacities of the
creature. These varied in the different parts of the world, according
to the peculiarities in the conditions of the masters. In high
latitudes, where the ground is snow-covered during the winter season,
dogs were used, as they are to this day, in dragging sleds. They were,
indeed, perhaps the first animals which were harnessed to vehicles. When
they were brought to serve this definite end, we may well believe that
the stronger and more enduring individuals were spared in times of
dearth for the reason that they were almost indispensable to their
masters, and even the little forethought which we find among primitive
peoples would lead to their preservation. Here again, doubtless, came in
the process of unintended selection which has made the Esquimau sled-dog
one of the most remarkable varieties of his kind.
Perhaps the most interesting of the early variations induced among
dogs is that which has arisen from the pastoral habit. We do not know
when this custom of keeping sheep in large flocks was first
instituted, but it is evidently of exceeding antiquity, probably far
older than the pyramids of Egypt. The custom could hardly have been
instituted without help of the shepherd's mate, the sheep-dog.
Although the creatures of this breed are probably in form very near to
the original wild species whence our canines came, the variety has as
regards its instincts been, by a process of education and selection,
led very far away from the original stock.
The wild forefathers of this species were clearly natural born
sheep-slayers, and the motive abides to this day in all the breeds which
have the strength to assail our unresisting flocks. The spirit is so
ingrained that even the most civilized of our house-dogs, which may for
generations never have tasted blood and which show no disposition to
attack the other animals of the barn-yard, cannot be trusted alone with
sheep. When two or more of them are together the old instincts of the
wild pack return, and they will slay with insensate brutality until they
are fairly exhausted with their fury. Their behavior on such occasions
reminds one of the actions of their masters when possessed with the
blind rage of a mob. Yet in the shepherd-dog we find this ancestral
motive, once a large part of the life of the creature, so overcome by
education and selection that they will not only care for a flock with
all the devotion which self-interest can lead the master to give to the
task, but they will cheerfully undergo almost any measure of privation
in order to protect their charges from harm. The annals of shepherd
districts, especially those where winter snows fall deeply, as in
Scotland, abound in anecdotes of a well-attested nature which show how
profoundly the dogs which tend the flocks are imbued with the love of
the animals committed to their care. This affection is more curious for
the reason that it is never in any measure returned by the sheep. To
them the custodian is ever a dreaded overseer. He seems to bring to them
nothing but the memories of danger derived from the experience which
their species acquired in far-away times.
It is very interesting to note the behavior of a young shepherd-dog when
he is first brought in contact with a flock. It is easy to see that he
has an amazingly keen interest in the sheep. He regards them with an
attention which he gives to no other living things, except perhaps his
master. Out of a litter of well-bred pups belonging to this variety, the
greater part will at once assume a curatorial attitude toward a flock.
They will show a disposition to keep them together, and will seize on
an individual only in case he undertakes to break away. They will
generally use no more force than is necessary to reduce the recalcitrant
to order. They arrest him by catching hold of the leg or fleece, and
rarely seize hold of the throat, which other dogs, led by their
inherited instincts, are apt at once to assail. Very rarely does a
shepherd-dog of good ancestry, even at the outset of his career, attack
a sheep in a way which shows that the ancient proclivities have been
revived in his spirit. Even then a little remonstrance, or at most a
slight castigation, is pretty sure to turn him from his evil ways. If we
could measure in some visible manner the psychic peculiarities of
animals, we would be led to regard this great change in the instincts of
the dog, which has been brought about by his use in herding, as perhaps
the most momentous transformation which man has ever accomplished in any
creature, including himself; for none of our own inherited savage traits
are so completely sublated at the time of our birth as is this old and
sometime dominant slaying motive in the shepherd-dog.
With the advancing differentiation of human occupations and amusements,
our breeds of dogs have, by more or less deliberate selection, been
developed until by form and instincts they fit a great variety of
purposes. Some of these pertain to industrial work, but the greater
portion are related to the sports or fancies of men. The turnspit was
bred for its short legs and small, compact body, and was serviceable in
those treadmills of the hearth which have long since passed out of use,
but which were for centuries features in our kitchens.
[Illustration: Bull-Dog]
The massive type of bull-dogs, characterized by heavy frames and an
indomitable will, appears to have been brought about by a process of
selection having for its unconscious end the development of a breed
which should render the herdsman of horned cattle something like the
assistance which the shepherd-dog gave to those who had charge of
flocks. In the more primitive state of our bulls and cows the
creatures were much wilder than at present, and were generally kept,
not in enclosed pastures, but on unfenced ranges. In these conditions
the care taken needed the help which the ancestors of our modern
bull-dog afforded. The tasks which the animal was called on to perform
were of a ruder nature than those which were allotted to the
shepherd-dog. Their business was to conquer the unruly beast. They
were taught to seize the muzzle, and by the pain they thus inflicted
they could subdue even the fiercer small bulls of the ancient type of
form. From this original use the cattle-dogs were turned to the brutal
sport of bull-baiting, a rude diversion which was indulged in by our
ancestors for centuries, and has only disappeared in our less cruel
modern days. Bred for the bull-ring, these dogs acquired the
formidable strength and ferocity under excitement which made their
name a terror and their qualities a satirical embodiment of the ruder
traits which characterized the British folk.
The training which instituted the breed of bull-dogs was evidently
much less continuous and effective than that which developed the
shepherding variety. The use for the creature in the care of herds has
passed away. In the older parts of the world cattle are kept only in
enclosures; and where, as on our frontier, they still range over
unbounded fields, they are guarded by horsemen who do not need the
assistance of dogs to control the movements of the herds. No longer
serviceable either in economies or sports, the breed of true bull-dogs
is rapidly disappearing. As we may often observe in other fields of
development, the peculiarities of this breed are now under the control
of fancy, and the blood is being led far away from its old
characteristics. The bull-terrier and other varieties, which retain
something of the form and of the solemn demeanor which characterized
their ancestors, but which are too small to assail horned cattle, mark
the vanishing stages of this great stock, which will soon be known
only in memory. The history of this peculiar herd-dog shows us how
marvellously pliant the body and mind of this species has become under
the conditions of civilization. The rude process of unconscious
selection, acting without steadfastness of purpose or rationally
developed skill, serves to sway the qualities of the animal this way
or that to meet the ever-changing requirements of use or fancy. A
similar selection in the case of our horned cattle has within a few
centuries converted the cows into mild-mannered and sedentary
milk-making machines, and has deprived the bulls of the greater part
of their ancient savage humor. Owing to this change in the quality of
their associates in captivity the dogs have also been led into great
variations. The same type of interaction may be traced again and again
in the isolated part of the world enclosed within our fences, as well
as in the free realm of the wildernesses. All the individuals in the
great host of life affect each other as do the soldiers of a
well-organized army in the movements of a battle.
The shepherd-dog, the turnspit, and the bull-dog are the three
remarkable variations of the canine blood which were brought about by
a process of training and selection unconsciously directed to the
institution of breeds suited to special economic ends. The other
varieties of dogs have been shaped more distinctly for purposes of
amusement or for the indulgence of mere fancy. The several varieties
of hounds, harriers, beagles, pointers, setters, terriers, etc., have
been designed to meet a dozen or more variations in the conditions of
the chase. The marvellously complete way in which special
peculiarities have been developed in mind and body makes this field of
domestic culture the most fascinating subject of inquiry to the
naturalist. The ordinary fox-hound has had his inheritances determined
so as to fit him for pursuing a small animal which can rarely be kept
in view during its flight, and which can only be followed by the odor
it leaves in its trail, so these creatures run almost altogether under
guidance of their sense of smell. The stag-hound, on the other hand,
pursues a relatively large animal which cannot well be followed by the
nose, at least with any speed; they therefore trust almost altogether
to vision in their chase. The packs which hunt otters have developed
the swimming habit and an array of instincts which fit them
especially for this peculiar sport. If space allowed we could note at
least a dozen divisions of the group of hounds or chasing dogs, each
of which has developed a peculiar assemblage of qualities, more or
less precisely adapted to some particular game.
[Illustration: Fox-Hound and Pups]
Perhaps the most special adaption which man has brought about in his
domesticated animals is found in our pointers and setters. In these
groups the dogs have been taught, in somewhat diverse ways, to
indicate the presence of birds to the gunner. Although the modes of
action of these two breeds are closely related, they are sufficiently
distinct to meet certain differences of circumstances. The
peculiarities of their actions, it should be noted, are altogether
related to the qualities of our fowling-pieces. These have been in
use, at least in the form where shot took the place of the single
ball, for less than two centuries, and the peculiar training of our
pointers and setters has been brought about in even less time. It
seems likely, indeed, that it is the result of about a hundred and
fifty years of teaching, combined with the selection which so
effectively works upon all our domesticated creatures. It thus appears
that this peculiar impress upon the habits of the hunting-dog is the
result of somewhere near thirty generations of culture.
[Illustration: Pointer Retrieving a Fallen Bird]
Although, as has been often suggested, the pointing or setting habit
probably rests upon an original custom of pausing for a moment before
leaping upon their prey, which was possibly characteristic of the wild
dog, it seems to me unlikely that this is the case, for we do not find
this habit of creeping on the prey among our more primitive forms of
dogs nor the wild allied species as a marked feature. All the canine
animals trust rather to furious chase than to the cautious form of
assault by stealthy approach and a final spring upon their prey, as is
the habit with the cat tribe. Granting this somewhat doubtful claim that
the induced habits of these dogs which have been specially adapted to
the fowling-piece rest upon an original and native instinct, the amount
of specialization which has been attained in about thirty generations of
care remains a very surprising feature, and affords one of the most
instructive lessons as to the possibilities of animal culture.
[Illustration: Pointer and Setter, Flushing Game]
It is an interesting fact that the variation of a spontaneous sort,
which is now taking place in our pointers and setters, is
considerable. It is, perhaps, more distinctly indicated here than in
any other of the breeds which are characterized by peculiar
qualities of mind. All those familiar with the behavior of these
strains of dogs have observed the high measure of individuality
which characterizes them. I have recently been informed by a friend,
who is a hunter and a very observing naturalist, of one of these
variations in the pointer's instinct, which may, by careful
selection, possibly lead to a very useful change in the habits of
the animal. Hunting the Virginia partridge in the tall grass on the
sea-coast of Georgia, his dog found by experience that his master
could not discern him when he was pointing birds, and that a yelp of
impatience would put up the covey before the gun was ready for them.
The sagacious dog, therefore, adopted the habit of backing away from
the point where he first fixed himself, so that he, by barking,
denoted the presence of the birds without giving them alarm.
Although, in this first instance, the action is purely rational, and
is indeed good evidence of singular discernment and contriving
skill, it seems likely that by careful breeding it may be brought
into the realm of pure instinct or inherited habit.
The great variation in habits which is taking place in those varieties
of dogs which are immediately under the master's eye during all the
process of the chase, is easily explained by the fact that these
creatures are in a position to be immediately and constantly
influenced during their most active, and therefore teachable state of
mind, by the will of man. A pack of fox-hounds is, to a great extent,
out of hand while engaged in the pursuit of their prey; but a pointer
or setter, even when under extreme excitement, is almost completely
mastered by the superior will. When we observe the extent to which
human intelligence is affecting the qualities of our hunting-dogs, it
is not surprising to note that, in almost every district where there
are peculiar kinds of game, varieties of the dog are developing which
are especially adapted to its pursuit. Thus, in the parts of North
America where the raccoon abounds, a variety of hunting-dog is in
process of development which has a singular assemblage of qualities
which fit it for this peculiar form of the chase. Although as yet
"coon-dogs" have not been cultivated for a sufficient time to acquire
distinct physical characteristics, their habits exhibit a larger range
of specialization than those of any other breed of sporting dogs.