BEASTS OF PREY 41 



is necessary that it should have been allowed to smell it previously. It 

 is this delicacy of smell, too, that makes strongly-smelling substances 

 very repugnant to dogs, ammonia, eau de Cologne and similar substances, 

 when held under its nose, arousing the greatest disgust. 



3. The sense of hearing is developed almost to equal perfection, and on 

 it depends the dog's employment as a watcher. Even when asleep and 

 he is never a sound sleeper the dog hears the stealthy footsteps of an 

 approaching thief. All watch-dogs proper (Pomeranians, sheep and 

 house dogs) have erect ears, such being better adapted to catch sounds. 

 Shrill sounds annoy dogs; many howl when they hear music or the 

 ringing of bells. 



4. Dogs used for the hunt, coursing, etc. (greyhounds and sporting dogs) 

 are, like the wolf, fast runners, with slender, compressed bodies and long 

 legs. The badger-hound, on the other hand, has to hunt beneath the 

 earth. By means of his short, crooked legs and elongated, flexible body 

 he can enter the holes of badgers and foxes, and move about in their 

 underground passages. The claws of his toes, too, are strong, and con- 

 sequently adapted for digging and burrowing underground. 



5. In regard to their teeth, the largest dogs are not inferior to the 

 wolf. They can break with ease even the firmest bones. Many, however, 

 have entirely laid aside their carnivorous mode of life, and have become 

 peaceful vegetable-eaters. Nevertheless a piece of meat is always a 

 welcome gift. 



6. The house-dog by training has lost much of its wildness. But 

 several breeds (fox and stag hounds) still hunt in packs like wolves. 



3. The Fox (Canis vulpes). 



Poets and song-writers have glorified the fox above every other 

 animal. Even the oldest legends speak of him as a cunning fellow, an 

 accomplished rogue and a crafty thief. Both his bodily structure and 

 intellectual characters adapt him perfectly to his vocation, in which he 

 is excelled by no other animal. 



1. The colour of the skin is a pale red, passing into gray. It is well 

 adapted to the colour of the soil, and as well suited for a leafy wood as 

 for a pine forest, for moor and field or rocky cliff. Cautiously creeping 

 along, the fox escapes observation, being protected by the complete 

 similarity of the colour of its skin to that of its environment. 



2. The senses are keen. That of smell is as fine as in the dog. The 

 sight, however, is sharper than that of his kindred. The vertical, oval 

 pupils point it out as a nocturnal animal (see under Cat). Its plundering 

 expeditions are not commenced until dusk, though, where it has nothing 



