28 



OUR DOMESTIC ANIMALS 



W.ALDMANX 



year, especiall}' in 

 Holland, the Dutch 

 breeders even carry- 

 ing off the first prizes 

 in Germany. We 

 ma\- now consider 

 the boxer as a good 

 dog which shows no 

 peculiarity of shape, 

 but takes his place 

 between the bulldog 

 and the bull terrier. 

 The Waldmaint or 

 Dachsliuihl. In Ger- 

 many they give this 

 tlog the syh'an name 

 of W'aldmann (forest 

 man), but he is by no 

 means exclusively a 

 forest dog. He is, 

 however, inseparable 

 from the German 

 hunter or forester, and as these men spend their 

 lives in the woods and mountains their dog re- 

 ceives the name of forest or mountain dog. The 

 shape of this German basset is almost weird. 

 He is low on his paws, with a very long body, 

 and, seen from in front, his legs appear so con- 

 torted that it were well he had never 

 been born. Seen on the right or 

 the left, the legs of a good 

 German basset are straight 

 from the body. The head 

 is long and narrow, the 

 ears hang down the whole 

 length of the head, and 

 the body is also long, but 

 has no saddle, a form 

 which, if present, betrays 

 weakness. The tail should 

 be as slim as possible and 

 should not turn \\\) upon the 

 back. In color some are black 

 brown-black, red-brown, light brown, 

 mouse color, or white spotted. The 

 white and mouse-colored varieties 

 are very rare. We shall see the German bassets 

 at work when we come to ferreting out foxes 



Ghr.m.an B.asset 



and badgers, and we can then admire their 

 \ivacity, their courage, and their slyness. 



The beagle. Among the small hunting dogs 

 that are employed, sometimes in packs and some- 

 times singly, to ferret out, chase, and catch, if 

 possible, small game, we find the beagle, a \-ery 

 ancient race, well known in 1614. It is said 

 that his English name of " beagle " comes from 

 the old French word bugle (the etjitga reftaiis, 

 a woodland plant). Like the French bassets, 

 they give voice, when the passion of the chase 

 seizes them, to a peculiarly sonorous note. The 

 beagle is a popular breed in many parts of 

 America and is commonly used in hunting 

 rabbits and such game. 



The French basset, very wrongfully con- 

 founded sometimes with the German basset, 

 makes part, together with the beagles, of what 

 is called in France the " minor hunting estab- 

 lishment," to distinguish them from the races 

 of large hunting dogs which make up what is 

 called the " great establishment." The two spe- 

 cies may be regarded as dwarf varieties of the 

 larger dogs. For a pleasure dog the basset, 

 as he is bred in France (and not as he is 

 badly bred in America), is a charming domes- 

 tic dog, excellent for his sociability and for his 

 extraordinary patience with children. The most 

 esteemed are three-colored, white, 

 brown, and black, the different 

 patches of which are gracefully 

 distributed over the body. 

 A young basset ought not 

 to be more than a dozen 

 inches in height, meas- 

 ured from the shoulder. 

 There are two varieties 

 of hair, smooth and 

 rough. It is very curious 

 to watch the waddling gait 

 of his plump body on its big 

 short legs, of which the front 

 ones, not more than four inches 

 ong, are sunk in at the knees and 

 then bent outward, like those of a 

 turnspit. The head has a well- 

 developed bump at the back, called the hunt- 

 ing bump, round which the plump flesh forms 



