vi PREFACE. 



interest in these animals, and who would spare neither money nor 

 trouble to ascertain the exact properties of the variety to which 

 each individual of their acquaintance belongs. Daniel, Youatt, 

 and Richardson have all laboured hard to enlighten their readers 

 upon the varieties of the canine species, and have no doubt done 

 much towards the attainment of this end ; but, as I before re- 

 marked, the deficiencies in their descriptions are patent to all. 

 It is true that the hound and the greyhound, the pointer and the 

 setter, as well as many of the foreign varieties of the dog, have 

 been favoured with special treatises ; but beyond them the ground 

 is almost untrodden, or else it is choked with weeds and rubbish 

 which render it difficult to ascertain what is beneath them. 



In the following pages I have been compelled to have recourse 

 to the work of Mr. Youatt in the instances of some of the foreign 

 dogs, both for the descriptions and also for the engravings which 

 are contained in it. At the time when he wrote, the Zoological 

 Society of London possessed an extensive collection of dogs, which 

 was made use of by him to great advantage ; and I can speak to 

 the correctness of most of his illustrations, from having compared 

 them with the originals soon after he first gave them to the pub- 

 lic ; but unfortunately there is now no such collection in England. 

 As far as possible, however, throughout the first Book the de- 

 scriptions and illustrations are drawn from the life, the specimens 

 selected being of the most perfect symmetry and of the purest 

 breed within my reach. For many of them I am indebted to 



