CHAPTER XIX 



THE BORZOI, OR RUSSIAN WOLFHOUND 



THE British cynopholist, not satisfied with the choice 

 provided in his own islands, has laid the whole 

 world under contribution, and it must be admitted 

 that we should be much the poorer if all foreign 

 dogs were regarded as aliens, and banished from 

 our shores. Among the strangers which we have 

 annexed, the Borzoi, or Russian Wolfhound, takes 

 prominent rank. His beauty of outline, grace of 

 movement, and aristocratic bearing in general, single 

 him out in any company. Some of us may prefer 

 the more homely-looking Deerhound, but no one 

 need be regarded as eccentric who claims that in 

 the Russian dog we have the acme of canine beauty. 

 Every man to his taste. The formation of this noble- 

 looking animal is sufficient indication of the class 

 to which he should be assigned. He is the shape 

 of the Greyhound, with greater size, and a long coat 

 of fine texture which enables him to better withstand 

 the rigours of an Eastern climate. Several other 

 Asiatic hounds, fleet of foot as it becomes those 

 which hunt by sight, are built on similar lines, which 

 inevitably suggest close kinship, but the head of the 

 Borzoi is markedly different from any other that I 



