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Show MAKJTED DOGS EYE3. An Explanation Vanted of the Present of These Tan Snots. Can any of your readers e:splain tht meaning of the tan spots seen so cora tnonly over tiit eyes in. black and tan dogs of most Iweeds? 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 ter-. Tiers, foxhounds, deerhounds, collies, lurchers, etc., but I could get no infor matton regarding them from the experts. ex-perts. In Bome of the highly bred toy dogs, as the small black and tan terriers, 1 tound 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 ia fairly good proof that when first domesticated domes-ticated the dog was reu or brown, like iho pariah, dingo, etc. As far as I can see, we do not find rue spots white on a black or dark ground, nor yet black or dark on a white or light ground. My explanation is that they have arisen as a permanent ftsarking after the dogs "sported" to black tinder domestication and have been 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 whilo 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 handa and shouted. T" 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 me. The nse of the tan spots in this case at least then occurred to me. May it not bo that the spots thus servo 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 bare several dogs about hero now with blrsek bodies and heads. Tho tan spots, rather pale, are of tho size of a shilling. I have shot ono, keeping the skin of the head as a curiosity. S. E. Peal in Nature. |