NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 265 



LETTER LVIII. 



v> . TO THE SAME. 



MY near neighbour, a young gentleman in the service of the 

 East India Company, has brought home a dog and a bitch of the 

 Cninese breed from Canton, such as are fattened in that country 

 for the purpose of being eaten : they are about the size of a 

 moderate spaniel ; of a pale yellow colour, with coarse bristling 

 hairs on their backs ; sharp upright ears, and peaked heads, which 

 give them a very fox-like appearance. Their hind legs are 

 unusually straight, without any bend at the hock or ham, to such a 

 degree as to give them an awkward gait when they trot. When 

 they are in motion their tails are curved high over their backs 

 like those of some hounds, and have a bare place each on the 

 outside from the tip midway, that does not seem to be matter of 

 accident, but somewhat singular. Their eyes are jet-black, small, 

 and piercing ; the insides of their lips 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 farinaceous 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 circum- 

 navigators. 



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," 



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