376 T'he Natural History of Se I borne 



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 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 ot 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 Kamschatdales also train the same 

 sort of sharp-eared, peak-nosed dogs to draw their sledges ; as 

 may be seen in an elegant print engraved for Captain Cook's 

 last voyage round the world. 



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

 pertinent 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 bones of partridges to the two 

 Chinese dogs, they devoured them with much greediness, and 

 licked the platter clean. 



No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the 

 scent and trained to the sport, which they then pursue with 

 vehemence and transport; but then they will not touch their 

 bones, but turn from them with abhorrence, even when they 

 are hungry. 



Now, that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such 



