Hounds.—These are large dogs, hunting by smell, with massive structure, large drooping ears, and usually smooth coats, without fringes of hair on the ears, limbs or tail. The bloodhound is probably the stock from which all the English races of hounds have been derived. The chief character is the magnificent head, narrow and dome-like between the huge pendulous ears, and with transverse puckers on the forehead and between the eyes. The prevailing colour is tan with large black spots. Bloodhounds, or, as they are sometimes termed, sleuthhounds, have been employed since the time of the Romans in pursuing and hunting down human beings, and a small variety, known as the Cuban bloodhound, probably of Spanish origin, was used to track fugitive negroes in slaveholding times. Bloodhounds quest slowly and carefully, and when they lose the scent cast backwards until they recover the original trail and make a fresh attempt to follow it.
Staghounds are close derivatives of the bloodhound, and formerly occurred in England in two strains, known respectively as the northern and southern hounds. Both breeds were large and heavy, with pendulous ears and thick throats with dewlaps. These strains seem to be now extinct, having been replaced by foxhounds, a large variety of which is employed in stag-hunting.
The modern English foxhound has been bred from the old northern and southern hounds, and is more lightly built, having been bred for speed and endurance. The favourite and most common colour is black-white-and-tan. The ears are usually artificially clipped so as to present a rounded lower margin. Their dash and vigour in the chase is much greater than that of the bloodhound, foxhounds casting forwards when they have lost the trail.
Harriers are a smaller breed of foxhounds, distinguished by their pointed ears, as it is not the custom to trim these. They are used in the pursuit of hares, and, although they are capable of very fast runs, have less endurance than foxhounds, and follow the trail with more care and deliberation.
Otterhounds are thick, woolly harriers with oily underfur. They are savage and quarrelsome, but are naturally excellent water-dogs.
Beagles are small foxhounds with long bodies and short limbs. They have a full bell-like cry and great cunning and perseverance in the tracking of hares and rabbits. They are relatively slow, and are followed on foot.
Turnspits were a small, hound-like race of dogs with long bodies, pendulous ears, out-turned feet and generally black-and-tan coloration. They were employed as animated roasting jacks, turning round and round the wire cage in which they were confined, but with the employment of mechanical jacks their use ceased and the race appears to be extinct.
Basset hounds are long and crooked-legged dogs, with pendulous ears. They appear to have been produced in Normandy and the Vendée, where they were employed for sporting purposes, and originally were no very definite breed. In comparatively recent times they have been adopted by English fanciers, and a definite strain with special points has been produced.
The dachshund, or badger hound, is of German origin, and like the basset hound was originally an elongated distorted hound with crooked legs, employed in baiting and hunting badgers, but now greatly improved and made more definite by the arts of the breeder. The colour is generally black-and-tan or brownish, the body is extremely long and cylindrical; the ears are large and pendulous, the legs broad, thick and twisted, with everted paws. The coat is short, thick and silky, and the tail is long and tapering.
The pointers, of which there are breeds slightly differing in most European countries, are descendants of the foxhound which have been taught to follow game by general body scent, not by tracking, nose to the ground, the traces left by the feet of the quarry, and, on approaching within sight of the game, to stand rigid, “pointing” in its direction. The general shape is like that of the foxhound, but the build is lighter and better knit, and the coat is soft, whilst white and spotted colorations are preferred. Pointers are employed to mark game for guns, and are especially useful in low cover such as that afforded by turnip fields.