240 



THE BULL-DOG. 



paratively easy to train a pointer or a retriever, because if lie fails in his task through over- 

 eagerness or over -tardiness, the worst consequence is, that the sportsman loses his next shot 

 or two, and the Dog is corrected for his behavior. But if a Boarhound rushes too eagerly 

 at the bristly quarry, he will in all probability be laid bleeding on the ground by a rapid 

 stroke from the boar's tusks, and if he should hang back and decline the combat, he is just as 

 likely to be struck by an infuriated boar as if he were boldly attacking it in front. A boar 

 has been known to turn with such terrible effect upon a pack containing fifty Dogs, that only 

 ten escaped scathless, and six or seven were killed on the spot. 



Great tact is required on the part of the hound in getting into a proper position, so as to 

 make his onset without exposing himself to the retaliating sweeps of the foam-flecked tusks, 

 and at the same time to act in concert with his companions, so as to keep the animal busily 



BOAKHOUND. Canls familial it. 



engaged with their reiterated attacks, while their master delivers the death-blow with a spear 

 or rifle-bullet. 



As we have no wild boars ranging at will through our forests, the Boarhound is never 

 seen in this country except as an object for the curious to gaze upon, or imported through 

 the caprice of some dog-loving individval. But in many parts of Germany it is still employed 

 in its legitimate avocation of chasing the wild boar, and is used in Denmark and Norway for 

 the pursuit of that noble animal, the elk. The latter creature is so large, so fleet, and so 

 vigorous, that it would easily outrun or outfight any Dog less swift or less powerful than 

 the Boarhound. 



In the fiir of the Boarhound the color of the mastiff generally predominate-, the coat 

 being usually brown or brindled uniformly over the body and limbs, but in some animals 

 the color is rather more varied, with large brown patches upon a slate-colored ground. The 

 limbs are long and exceedingly powerful, and the head possesses the square muzzle of the 

 mastiff, together with the sharp and somewhat pert air of the terrier. It is a very large 

 animal, measuring from thirty to thirty -two inches in height at the shoulder. 



THE BULL-DOG is said, by all those who have had an opportunity of judging its capa- 

 bilities, to be, with the exception of the game-cock, the most courageous animal in the world 



