THE GAME FOWL. 223 



more evil intention (for the present) than many a gentleman 

 when he sets to his partner in a quadrille. 



Sir W. Hooker gives a very pleasing instance of animal 

 skirmishing, which he observed while making his tour in Ice- 

 land : 



" Had I been the only person to witness the following cir- 

 cumstance concerning the Dogs in Iceland, I should scarcely 

 have ventured to relate the anecdote ; but my scruples are 

 removed, as, so far from this having been the case, I was not 

 even the first who saw it ; for Mr. Browning, an officer of the 

 Talbot, whose ill-health confined him to a room on shore, called 

 my attention to it, by more than once remarking to me that 

 he had, from his window, in the morning of several successive 

 days, observed, at a certain hour, a number of Dogs assemble 

 near his house, as if by a previously concerted arrangement, 

 and, after performing a sort of sham-fight for some time, dis- 

 perse and return to their homes. A desire to be an eye-wit- 

 ness of so singular a fact, led me to go to this gentleman's 

 room one morning, just as these animals were about to collect. 

 The spot they frequented was across the river, which there are 

 but two ways of passing from the town without swimming, 

 the one a bridge, the other some stepping-stones, each situated 

 at a small distance from the other. By both these approaches 

 to the field, the Dogs belonging to Reikevig were running with 

 the greatest speed, while their companions of the neighbouring 

 country were hastening to the place of rendezvous from other 

 quarters. We counted twenty-five of them, not all of the true 

 Icelandic stock, (the Fiaar-huundar,} but some of different, 

 kinds, which had probably been brought to the country by the 

 Danes ; and I presume it was one of these, much larger and 

 stronger than the rest, who placed himself upon an eminence 

 in the centre of the crowd. In a few seconds, three or four 

 of them left the main body, and ran to the distance of thirty 

 or forty yards, where they skirmished in a sort of sham-battle; 



