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About 800 dwarf galaxy candidates have been identified on the approximately 1200 photographic plates centered on galaxies in the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies. The plates each cover a field of 30'x30' and their high resolution (11"/mm) allows for the identification of dwarf galaxies on the basis of morphology alone. A catalog with positions, magnitudes and morphological types has been compiled. An analysis of their small scale clustering properties indicates that dwarf galaxies are more strongly clustered than their giant counterparts. Possible explanations are fading/self-destruction of dwarf galaxies in low-density environments and dwarf creation during merger events. If a population of star-bursting galaxies at z > 0.4 that has for the largest part faded out of visibility at the present epoch is responsible for the observed high redshift galaxy count excess, then the local dwarf galaxies (z < 0.02) could be the visible survivors of this population.
