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Show MARKED DOGS' EYES. An Explanation Wanted of the Presence of These Tan Snots. Can any of your readers explain the meaning of the tan spots seen bo com xnonly over thfc eyes in black and taa .logs of most K't.eds? When in Melbourne last year, I went carefully over all the dogs in a show with one of the stewards, and we found the spots in all the black and tan terriers, ter-riers, foxhounds, deerhounds, collies, lurchers, etc., but I could get no infer tnation regarding them from the experts. ex-perts. In some of the highly bred toy dogs, as the Email black and tan terriers, 1 found on inquiry that these spots, formerly for-merly so very conspicuous, were being bred out and had nearly disappeared. Their persistence through so many strongly marked varieties, except those Of late date, is singular, for there la fairly good proof that when first domesticated domes-ticated the dog was reu or brown, like Mae pariah, dingo, etc. As far as I can see, we do not find foe spots white on a black or dark ground, nor yet black or dark on a white or light ground. Sly explanation is that they havo arisen as a permanent marking after the dogs "sported" to black under domestication and have Deen preserved and developed through natural selection. Possibly they are protective pro-tective and simulate eyes. One morning, just at dawn, I had occasion oc-casion to go out into the garden, and while stooping to examine some 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 me. Suspecting that a black leopard was about to spring over, I started back, clapped my hands and shouted. Tr my relief, however, I 6aw a tail wag and found that the spectator spec-tator was a cooly's dog I knew very well and which recognized me. The use of the tan spots in this case at least then occurred to ma May it not be that the spots thus serve a protective purpose and have often of-ten saved the lives of dogs (black dogs) from their enemies, the smaller felines, such as the clouded leopard, eta ? Perhaps Per-haps the matter is not new, but if it is it seems worth looking into. I hare several docs about here now with black bodies and heads. Tho tan spots, rather pale, are of the size of a shilling. I have shot one, keeping the skin of the head as a curiosity. S. E. Peal in Nature. |