OF SELBORNE. 255 



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 an- 

 cestors, 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 vege- 

 tables, 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 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, the dogs which draw the Tartars on 

 snow-sledges near the river Oby are engraved with prick-ears, 

 like those from Canton. The Kamscliatdales also train the 

 same sort of sharp-eared peaked-nosed dogs to draw their 

 sledges ; as may be seen in an elegant print engraved for 

 Captain Cootis last voyage round the world. 



Now we are upon the subject of dogs it may not be imper- 

 tinent to add, that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, though 

 they hunt partridges and pheasants as it were by- instinct, and 

 with much delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their 

 bones when offered as food ; nor will a mongrel dog of my 

 own, though he is remarkable for finding that sort of game. 

 But, when we came to offer the boaes of partridges to the two 

 Chinese dogs, they devoured them with much greediness, and 

 licked the platter clean. 



