BLOODHOUND.—Canis fomiliaris. 
One of these little canine pets is to be seen in the British Museum, and always 
attracts much attention from the visitors. Indeed, if it were not in so dignified a 
locality, it would be generally classed with the ener the flying serpent, ‘and the 
Tartar lamb, as an admirable example of clever workmanship. It is precisely like 
those white woollen toy Dogs which sit upon a pair of bellows, and when pressed give 
forth a nondescript sound, intended to do duty for the legitimate canine bark. To say that 
it is no larger than these toys would be hardly true, for I have seen in the shop windows 
many a toy Dog which exceeded in size the veritable Mexican Lapdog. 
THE MAGNIFICENT animal which is termed the BLOODHOUND, on account of its pecu- 
liar facility for tracking a wounded animal through all the mazes of its devious course, 
is very scarce in England, as there is but little need for these Dogs for its chief 
employment. 
In the “good old times” this animal was largely used by thief-takers, for the purpose 
of tracking and securing the robbers who in those days made the country unsafe, and 
laid the roads under a black mail. Sheep-stealers, who were much more common when 
the offence was visited with capital punishment, were frequently detected by the delicate 
nose of the BLoopHouND, which would, when once laid on the scent, follow it up with 
unerring precision, unravelling the single trail from among a hundred crossing footsteps, 
and only to be battled by water or blood. Water holds no scent, and if the hunted man is 
able to take a long leap into the water, and to get out again in some similar fashion, he 
may set at defiance the Bloodhound’s nose. Tf blood be spilt upon the track, the delicate 
