UF SELBORNE. 309 
when they trot. When they are in motion their 
tails are curved high over their backs, like those of 
some hounds, and have a bare place each on the 
outside from the tip midway, that does not seem 
to be matter of accident, but somewhat singular. 
Their eyes are jet black, small, and piercing ; the 
insides of their lips and mouths of the same colour, 
and their tongues blue. The bitch has a dew-claw 
on each hind leg, the dog has none. When taken 
out into a field, the bitch showed some disposition 
for hunting, and dwelt on the scent of a covey of 
partridges till she sprung them, giving her tongue 
all the time. The dogs in South America are 
dumb, but these bark much in a short, thick man- 
ner, like foxes, and have a surly, savage demean- 
our, like their ancestors, which are not domesti- 
cated, but bred up in sties, where they are fed for 
the table with rice-meal and other farinaceous food. 
These dogs, having been taken on board as soon as 
weaned, could not learn much from their dam ; yet 
they did not relish flesh when they came to Eng- 
land. In the islands of the Pacific Ocean the dogs 
are bred upon vegetables, and would not eat flesh 
when offered them by our circumnavigators. 
We believe that all dogs in a state of nature 
have sharp, upright, fox-like ears ; and that hang- 
ing ears, which are esteemed so graceful, are the 
effect of choice breeding and cultivation. Thus, 
in the Travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to 
China, the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow- 
sledges, near the river Oby, are engraved with 
prick-ears, like those from Canton. The Kanit- 
schatdales also train the same sort of sharp-eared, 
peaked-nosed dogs to draw their sledges, as may 
