CHAPTER VI. 



WATCH DOGS, HOUSE DOGS, AND TOY DOGS. 



bULLDOG.— ENGLISH MASTIFF.— MOUNT ST. BERNARD.— TUIBET DOG.^ 

 POODLE.— MALTESE DOG.— LION DOG.— SHOCK DOG.— TOY SPANIELS. 

 —TOT TERRIERS.— THE PUG DOG.— ITALIAN GREYHOUND. 



Th2 peculiarity of this division is that the dogs composing it are 

 solely useful as the companions or guards of their owners, not 

 being capable of being employed with advantage for hunting, in 

 consequence of their defective noses, and their sizes being either 

 too large and unwieldy, or too small, for that purpose. For the 

 same reason they are not serviceable as pastoral dogs or for 

 draught, their legs and feet, as well as their powers of maintaining 

 long-continued exertion, being comparatively deficient. These 

 dogs nearly all show a great disposition to bark at intruders, and 

 thereby give warning of their approach ; but some, as the bull- 

 dog, are nearly silent, and their bite is far worse than their bark. 

 Others, as, for instance, the little house dogs, generally with more 

 or less of the terrier in them, are only to be used for the purpose 

 of warning by their bark, as their bite would scarcely deter the 

 most timid. The varieties are as follows : — 



THE BULLDOG. 



F. Cuvier has asserted that this dog has a brain smaller in pro- 

 portion than any other of his congeners, and in this way accounts 

 for his assumed want of sagacity. But, though this authority is 

 deservedly high, I must beg leave to doubt the fact as well as the 

 inference, for if the brain is weighed with the body of the dog 

 from which it was taken, it will be found to be relatively above 

 the average, the mistake arising from the evident disproportion be- 

 tween the brain and the skull. For the whole head, including the 

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