90 ANECDOTES OF ANIMALS. 



the Arab horses) those kept for coursing are muffled 

 up in cloths during our periods of cold temperature. 

 Their form, their clear, prominent eyes, show that they 

 secure their prey by speed, not by smell ; and such is 

 their power in this respect, that they will run eight 

 miles in twelve minutes, and will run down the hare 

 with fatigue, while they themselves are comparatively 

 fresh. Colonel Smith fixes their earliest origin to the 

 westward of the Asiatic mountains, where the Bactrian 

 and Persian plains commence, and the Scythian steppes 

 stretch to the north. Thence they have been spread 

 over Europe, Asia, and part of Africa; many have 

 again become wild, and others are the pampered de- 

 pendants of amateur sportsmen. Many Russian noble- 

 men keep packs of them in the steppes. 



The Scotch Greyhound (Canis Scoticus), generally 

 white, with black clouds, is said to be the most intel- 

 lectual of all, and formerly to have had so good a scent 

 as to be employed as a bloodhound. Maida, whose 

 name is immortalized as the favourite of Sir Walter 

 Scott, was a Scottish greyhound. 



The Irish is the largest of all the western breeds, and 

 is supposed to owe this distinction to mingling with the 

 great Danish dog. To it Ireland owes the extirpation 

 of wolves, and itself now scarcely exists but in name. 



An instance is recorded of a black greyhound in 

 Lancashire, who adopted a life of freedom, and lived 

 upon depredation. Many attempts were made to shoot 

 her, but she eluded them all. She was at last ensnared 

 in a barn, where she had placed her puppies ; they 

 were destroyed, and she was partially reclaimed, so as 

 to be useful in coursing ; but she always retained that 

 wild look which told of her frolic. A Mr. Kirkpatrick 



