38 DOMESTICATED HUNTING DOGS. 



clever in the one case, and more stout and honest in the other. In 

 the horse the eye readily detects the thoroughbred, but this is not 

 the case here : for there are often to be met with most beautifully 

 formed greyhounds of private blood, which it would be impossible 

 to distinguish from the best public breeds by their appearance, but 

 Tvhich in actual trial would be sure to show defective speed and 

 sagacity. This being the case, I shall tirst describe the general 

 characteristics of both, and afterwards those in which they differ 

 from one another. 



The points of the greyhound will be described at length, because 

 as far as speed goes, he may be taken as the type to which all 

 other breeds are referred ; but, before going into these particulars, 

 it will be interesting to examine the often-quoted doggrel rhymes, 

 which are founded upon a longer effusion originally published by 

 Wynkyn de Worde in 1496, and to institute a comparison between 

 the greyhound of the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries. In the 

 former of these periods it was said that this dog should have — 



" The head of a snake, 

 The neck of the drake, 

 A back like a beam, 

 A side like a bream. 

 The tail of a rat, 

 And the foot of a cat." 



Now, although the several points herein mentioned may be en- 

 larged upon, it is scarcely possible to dissent from any one of 

 them ; but, as all my readers may not exactly know the form 

 which is meant to be conveyed by the side of a bream for instance, 

 it is necessar\- to explain it in more intelligible language. 



1st. The HEAD, it is said, should be snake-like, but this is not to 

 be taken literally, as that of the snake differs considerably from 

 the head of any specimen of the greyhound which has ever come 

 under my observation. Every snake's head is flat and broad, with 

 the nose or snout also quite compressed, while the head of the 

 greyhound, though flat at the top, is comparatively circular in its 

 transverse section, and the nose is irregularly triangular. There 

 is no doubt that the greyhound of former days, before the cross of 



