DA CHSH UNDS. 435 



DACHSHUNDS. 



In Germany there are two kinds of dachshunds — one with long 

 hairs and bushy tails ; these are very rare, but far the best ; the 

 other with short hairs. Of these there are only two. First, the 

 regular black with spots over the eyes and on the legs, of a brown 

 color resembling the rust of iron (white throat). Second, the 

 quite brown ones. Other colors are not correct. Of both dachs- 

 hunds — with long, and those with short hair— there are again 

 some with straight and some with bended legs. The dogs with 

 straight legs are said to be better. 



Herr F. Van Ivernor's edition of Der Waidmann, Bavaria, says : 



" What they call in Bavaria " dachshunds " are the most dis- 

 gusting dogs I know of. Since the first of January I have killed 

 two and wounded three, and I pay to every one of my game- 

 keepers, two thalers for the tail, which he must bring as a token 

 that he shot him. 



Every peasant here has one or two of these abominable curs, 

 which follow them when plowing and driving, and which, as soon 

 as they get on the track of a roebuck, deer or hare, chase him, 

 ' pif paf! pif paf!' all through the wood, and so disturbing the 

 game. These beasts ! (the noble name dog is too good for them) 

 spoil the shooting grounds so much that I, for instance, have on 

 my five different reviers (shooting grounds) not more than about 

 seven or eight cove>'s of partridge, and altogether I have the hunt- 

 ing on over 46,000 Prussian ckaigeti — deer, roebucks, and chamois 

 are abundant, nevertheless. What they call here dachshunds are 

 as far distant from a good dachshund as a donkey from a Gladi- 

 ateur, or any pretty good thoroughbred horse. They are too large 

 and high, show marks from all kinds of dogs, butcher-dogs, poodles, 

 rat-catchers, etc., with which their mothers have been in love ; do 

 not go in the burrow of a fox (the only thing for which one ought 

 to use a dachshund), have no obedience, and are only fit for dis- 

 turbing the game, and making 'pif paf! ' behind a roebuck, and 

 to hunt him until he is almost dead." 



In the London Field we find a long treatise on this dog, from 

 which we quote the following : 



This dog is generally considered in Germany to be a pure and 

 independent breed, for a long time confined to the mountain chain 

 and high forests of Southern and Central Europe, extending 

 through Germany and into France, where he is probably the orig- 

 inal of the bassei ajambes torses. The old English turnspit some- 



