(
Canis laniarius
). There is considerable difficulty in describing this variety. The French consider it as the progenitor of all the breeds of dogs that resemble and yet cannot be perfectly classed with the greyhound. It should rather be considered as a species in which are included a variety of dogs, — the Albanian, the Danish, the Irish greyhound, and almost the pure British greyhound. The head is elongated and the forehead flat, the ears pendulous towards the tips, and the colour of a yellowish fawn. This is the usual sheep-dog in France, in which country he is also employed as a house-dog. He discharges his duty most faithfully; and, notwithstanding his flat forehead, shows himself to possess a very high degree of intelligence.
The French matin we have seen of every variety of colour, being mostly patched with brown, yellow, grey, black, or white. He is employed both in France and Germany in hunting the boar and wolf; which savage animals he fearlessly attacks with courage equal to any dog they possess. — L.
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| The Greyhound.
We find no mention of this dog in the early Grecian records. The
pugnaces and the sagaces are mentioned; but the
celeres — the swift-footed — are not spoken of as a peculiar breed.
The Celtic nations, the inhabitants of the northern continent of Europe
and the Western Islands, were then scarcely known, and the swift-footed
dogs were peculiar to those tribes. They were not, however, introduced
into the more southern parts of Europe until after the dissolution of
the Roman commonwealth. [The] dog is, however, mentioned by Ovid; and his description of coursing the hare is so accurate that we cannot refrain from inserting it. We select a translation of it from Golding. |
"I gat me to the knap
Of this same hill, and there behelde of this strange course the hap,
In which the beaste seemes one while caught, and ere a man would thinke
[Doth] quickly give the grewnd[9] the slip, and from his biting shrinke;
And, like a wilie fox, he runs not forth directly out,
Nor makes a winlas over all the champion fields about,
But, doubling and indenting, still avoydes his enemie's lips,
An turning short, as swift about as spinning-wheele he wips,
To disappoint the snatch. [The] grewnd, pursuing at an inch,
Doth cote[10] him, never loosing. Continually he snatches
In vaine, but nothing in his mouth, save only hair, he catches."
There is another sketch by the same poet:
"As when th' impatient greyhound, slipped from far,
Bounds o'er the glade to course the fearful hare,
She in her speed does all her safety lay,
And he with double speed pursues the prey;
O'erruns her at the sitting turn, but licks
His chaps in vain, yet blows upon the flix;
[She] seeks the shelter, which the neighbouring covert gives,
And, gaining it, she doubts if yet she lives."[11]