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Show toURITiQ tJOGS' EYES. j An Explanation Vanted of the Present, of These Tan Spots. Can any of your readers explain tin meaning of the tan spots seen so commonly com-monly over tilt eyes in black and taa 4o.es of most lveds? When in Melbourne last year, I went carefully over all the dogs in a show vrith one of the stewards, and we found tbo spots in all the black and tan terriers, ter-riers, foxhounds, deerhounds, collies, lurchers, eta, but I could get no infor tnation regarding them from the experts. ex-perts. In' somo of the highly bred toy doga, as the small black and tan terriers, 1 j found on inquiry that these spots, for nierly so very conspicuous, were being bred out and had nearly disappeared. Their persiieiice through so many strongly marked varieties, except those of late date, is singular, for there ia fairly good proof that when first domesticated domes-ticated the dog was reu or brown, like Uie pariah, dingo, etc. As far as I can see, wo do not find Aie spots white on a black or dark ground, nor yet black or dark on a 1 white or light ground. 2Iy explanation is that they havo arisen as a permanent marking after the dog.': "sported" to black under domestication and have rcu preserved and developed through ii&tural selection. Possibly they are pro tectivo and simulate eyes. One morning, just at dawn, I had o J casion to go out into the garden, -and while stooping to examine somo flowers, near a fence partly covered with creepers, creep-ers, I suddenly saw an animal's head looking through, and what seemed to be two seemingly large and ferocious black eyes glared at mo. Suspecting that a black leopard was about to spring over, I starred back, clapped my hands and shouted. To my relief, however, I saw a tail wag and found that the spectator spec-tator was a cooly's dog I knew very well and which recognized mo. The use of the tan spots in this case at least then occurred to me. May it not be that the spots thus servo a protective purpose and have often of-ten saved the lives of dogs (black dogs) from thoir enemies, the smaller felines, such as the clouded leopard, etc. ? Per-hsps Per-hsps the matter is not new, but if it is it seems worth looking into. I hare several dogs about hero now yriih fclf.ck bodies and heads. Tho tan spots, rather pale, are of the size of a shilling. I have shot one, keeping tho skin of the head as a curiosity. S. E. Peal in Nature. |