Account of the Irifh Wolf-dog, 169 
hind fhoulders thirteen inches; from the point of the nofe 
to the eye four inches and a half; the ears fix inches long; 
round the wideft part of the belly (about three inches from 
the fore-legs) thirty-five inches; twenty-fix inches round 
the hind-part clofe to the hind-legs; the hair fhort and 
fmooth ; the colour of fome brown and white; others black 
and white. 
They feem good-tempered animals, but, from the ac- 
counts I received, are degenerated in fize. They were 
formerly much larger, and in their make more like a grey- 
hound. 
The following extra& of a letter from the Earl of Alta- 
mont to A. B. Lambert, Efq. V. P. L. S. read to the Society 
Jan. 3, 1797, contains fome farther particulars refpecting 
thefe animals. 
There were formerly in Ireland two. kinds of wolf-dogs, 
the greyhound and the maftiff. Till within thefe two years 
I was poffeffed of both kinds, perfectly diftinét and eafily 
known from each other. The heads were not fo fharp in 7 
the latter as in the former; but there feemed a great fimi- - 
larity of temper and difpofition, both being harmlefs and 
indolent. The painting in your poffeffion is of the maftiff 
wolf-doge. (See Plate V.) 
“« T have at prefent five wolf-doos remaining, three males 
and two females; in thefe the two forts appeared to be 
mixed. The dam was of the maftiff, the fire, if Iam not 
miftaken, was of the greyhound kind. The fire and dam 
had not dwindled in fize from any that I remember here. 
Thofe which now remain are too young to judge of. We 
have an old man here named Bryan Scahil, now in his. 119th 
year, whofe memory feems accurate and all his faculties 
complete : he perfectly remembers the hunting of wolves 
_ in Treland as a common matter of fport ;, and informs me, 
that the ufage was, to colleé all the dogs of every fort in the 
neighbourhood, and to borrow wolf-dogs from the principal 
gentlemen, who alone had them, and who ufually affifted in 
. i G the 
