GREECE ic)5 



covers where game hardly ever lacks and where shooting- becomes 

 enjoyable, and is, generally speaking, well rewarded. 



As a rule, both on the mainland and the islands, wherever there 

 are bushes of arbutus, scrub-oak. carob and bramble, within easy 

 reach of cultivated land, it may be assumed that game will be found. 

 The densely growing burnet thorn {Poterium spinosum), which covers 

 much of the ground, bears small black berries on which the red-leo- 

 feeds greedily. Consequendy such covers should be well searched. 

 Agnus castus and oleander tufts line the streams, and are also 

 favoured retreats of game. When grapes begin to ripen, the vine- 

 yards are full of blackbirds ; and even hares are known to grow fat 

 on the fruit of the vine. 



VI.— DOGS 



A very prominent feature of the open country in Greece are 

 the sheepdogs, and many travellers have carried away disagreeable 

 reminiscences of them.* There is litde doubt they can claim direct 

 descent from the old Molossian breed, renowned in antiquity for 

 their ferocity.t They know a stranger by his dress, differing as it 

 does so materially from that of the shepherds whom they faith- 

 fully serve, and will greet the intruder with loud barkings, while they 

 manoeuvre around him with bewildering tactics. As they feed 

 mostly on offal and carrion, the danger of blood-poisoning and 

 hydrophobia is great. Unless, therefore, you adopt the wisest course, 

 which is to give a very wide berth to sheepfolds, there is but one 



* T. S. Hughes, Travels in Greece and Albania, 1830, i. pp. 489, 501. 



t e.-^iKwraros U Kvuiv Mo\o(T<r6i, eirel evfj-iSeararoi Kai oi di'dpes. .-ELIAN, AT.S. iii. 2. 



