A 1* !• E N D I X . 



285 



CANES VENATICI. Class III. 



CANES CELERES. 



H<E pedibus celeres. 



This class, 1 by far the least numerous of the three, contains only 

 the Vertragusor Vertraha,- and possibly the Sicamber ; — of the latter 

 of whom I have nothing to communicate — being neither mentioned 

 by Xenophon, Pollux, Oppian, nor Neraesian. If he be, as has 

 been supposed, a Belgic hound, he cannot be the boar-hound of Silius 

 Italicus, without losing his claim to admission on our present file. 

 No Can is Venaticus can be enrolled here, who runs otherwise than 

 on sight of his game ; — it is his characteristic property — ^ 



Claudian. de 



laud. Stilicou. 



L. III. 



1. The swift-footed dogs of our tliird class are included, we may suppose, in 

 M. F. Cuvier's first division ; having the head much elongated, the parietal bones 

 insensibly approaching each other, and the condyles of the lower jaw placed in a 

 horizontal line with the upper cheek teeth. 



2. Having had an opportunity of consulting Conrad Heresbach's "Thereutice" Thereutices 

 since the earlier part of this work was printed off, I may here subjoin the learned l^orapendium, 

 epitomizer's description of the greyhound type : — " aliud genus Venaticorum, quos 



leporarios et emissarios vocant ac vertagos; — hos quserimus, qui sint corpore procero, 

 ag^li et expedite, cruribus prioribus excelsioribus, capite longiusculo, neque carnoso 

 sed levi, cruribus brevibus atque erectis, oculis niicantibus, pectore toroso, casteria 

 expeditis membris, nisi quod clunes latiusculos habentes raagis probantur, et caud^ 

 long^ et levi, non hirsuta. Vidimus tamen e Norwegia et insult Thulje adductos 

 pemicitate non vulgari, qui etcauda et corpore toto villosi erant. Veriim hi non ad 

 sagacitatem sed ad velocitatem usurpantur. Ejus generis sunt Britannici, siuiul et 

 pernicitate et robore valentes, nisi quod corpore vasto, cervis persequendis magis 

 idonei." The latter are doubtless Caledonian deer greyhounds. 



3. This property, I allow, is impaired in certain modern individuals of the Celtic 

 family, hereafter mentioned, in whom the admixture of nasal sagacity indicates im- 

 purity of blood, and degeneracy from the parent stock. The lines of Gratius, 

 descriptive of the greyhound's speed, and keenness of vision, have been already cited 

 under the Sagacious class : Englished by Wase, (totidem versibui, the good man's 

 only poetical merit) they run thus : 



— chuse the grayhound py'd with black and white, 

 He runs more swift then thought or winged flight; 

 But courseth yet in view, not hunts in traile, 

 In which the quick Petronians never faile. 



A Poem of 



Hunting, &c. 



Enf;li'>hed by 



C. Wase, Gent. 



1054. 



