DOGS. 243 



and mouths of the same colour, and their tongues blue. The 

 bitch has a dew-claw on each hind leg ; the dog has none. 

 When taken out into a field the bitch showed some disposition 

 for hunting, and dwelt on the scent of a covey of partridges till 

 she sprung them, giving her tongue all the time. The dogs in 

 South America are dumb ; but these bark much in a short thick 

 manner, like foxes ; and have a surly, savage demeanour like 

 their ancestors, which are not domesticated, but bred up in sties, 

 where they are fed for the table with rice-meal and other farina- 

 ceous food. These dogs, having been taken on board as soon as 

 weaned, could not learn much from their dam ; yet they did not 

 relish flesh when they came to England. In the islands of the 

 pacific ocean the dogs are bred up on vegetables, and would not 

 eat flesh when offered them by our circumnavigators. 



We believe that all dogs, in a state of nature, have sharp, 

 upright, fox-like ears ; and that hanging ears, which are esteemed 

 so graceful, are the effect of choice breeding and cultivation. 

 Thus, in the travels of Ysbrandt Ides from Muscovy to China, 

 the dogs which draw the Tartars on snow-sledges near the river 

 Oby are engraved with prick-ears, like those from Canton. The 

 Kamschatdales also train the same sort of sharp-eared peaked- 

 nosed dogs to draw their sledges ; as may be seen in an elegant 

 print engraved for Captain Cook's last voyage round the world. 



Now we are upon the subject of dogs, it may not be imper- 

 tinent to add, that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, though they 

 hunt partridges and pheasants as it were by instinct, and with 

 much delight and alacrity, yet will hardly touch their bones 

 when offered as food ; nor will a mongrel dog of my own, though 

 he is remarkable for finding that sort of game. But, when we 

 came to offer the bones of partridges to the two Chinese dogs, 

 they devoured them with much greediness, and licked the platter 

 clean. 



No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to the scent 

 and trained to the sport, which they then pursue with vehemence 

 and transport ; but then they will not touch their bones, but turn 

 from them with abhorrence, even when they are hungry. 



Now, that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such birds 

 as they are not disposed to hunt is no wonder ; but why they 

 reject and do not care to eat their natural game is not so easily 

 accounted for, since the end of hunting seems to be, that the 



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