NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 265 
Lo bee, bv DES. 
TO THE SAME. 
My near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service of the 
East India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch of the 
Cninese breed from Canton, such as are fattened in that country 
for the purpose of being eaten: they are about the size of a 
moderate spaniel ; of a pale yellow colour, with coarse bristling 
hairs on their backs; sharp upright ears, and peaked heads, which 
give them a very fox-like appearance. Their hind legs are 
unusually straight, without any bend at the hock or ham, to such a 
degree as to give them an awkward gait 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 manner like foxes, and have a surly, savage 
demeanour like their ancestors, which are not domesticated, 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 England. In the 
islands of the Pacific ocean the dogs are bred up on vegetables, 
and would not eat flesh when offered them by our circum- 
navigators. 
We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, 
upright, fox-like ears ; and that hanging 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,” 
