THE GREYHOUND. 



tion and prominent features in which they agree with 

 each other, although differing in minor points, such as 

 coat and colour. 



The Greyhound, Deerhound, Irish Wolfhound, Whippet, 

 and even the mongrel Lurcher, show a conformation in 

 common; and extending observation to the classes for 

 foreign dogs, we find the graceful Persian, the Siberian, 

 Circassian, and Pyrenean Wolfhounds, and also the little 

 Italian Greyhound, as well as occasional visitors from the 

 far East, included in this elastic classification by right of 

 the general lines on which they are built. 



We have in all, although not equally developed, the 

 same elongated head, long and flexible neck, deep chest, 

 tucked up or girt loins, and the sweeping quarters, which 

 taken together indicate capacity for great speed. 



In Europe, Asia, and Africa, we meet with dogs no one 

 would hesitate to class with those named above; but none 

 of the dogs of America, so far as I know, approach them 

 very closely. 



The Greyhound group stands out very boldly from all 

 others; and whether all its varieties came originally from 

 the same stock (some Canis primcevus, as Darwin sug- 

 gests), or a species of wolf existent or extinct, it has for 

 ages been recognised as constituting a very distinct type, 

 and from remote history has formed, as it still does, a very 

 important section of our British dogs. 



It is probable that the whole of those I have enumerated 

 above which belong to this country, and probably some of 

 the foreign ones, are from the same stock, modified by 

 selection and occasional crosses ; as, for instance, the large 

 muscular Irish Wolfhound may have had a strain 



