236 The Natural History 



Now we are upon the subject of dogs it may not be 

 impertinent to add, that spaniels, as all sportsmen know, 

 though they hunt partridges and pheasants as it were by 

 instinct, and with much delight and alacrity, yet will 

 hardly touch their bones when offered as food ; nor will 

 a mongrel dog of my own, though he is remarkable for 

 finding that sort of game. But, when we came to offer 

 the bones of partridges to the two Chinese dogs, they 

 devoured them with much greediness, and licked the 

 platter clean. 



No sporting dogs will flush woodcocks till inured to 

 the sc^ and trained to the sport, which they then 

 pursue' with vehemence and transport ; but then they 

 will not touch their bones, but turn from them with 

 abhorrence, even when they are hungry. 



Now, that dogs should not be fond of the bones of such 

 birds as they are not disposed to hunt is no wonder ; but 

 why they reject and do not care to eat their natural game 

 is not so easily accounted for, since the end of hunting 

 seems to be, that the chase pursued should be eaten. 

 Dogs again will not devour the more rancid water-fowls, 

 nor indeed the bones of any wild-fowls ; nor will they 

 touch the foetid bodies of birds that feed on offal and 

 garbage : and indeed there may be somewhat of provi- 

 dential instinct in this circumstance of dislike ; for 

 vultures,^ and kites, and ravens, and crows, etc., were 

 intended to be messmates with dogs ^ over their carrion ; 

 and seem to be appointed by nature as fellow-scavengei:3 

 to remove all cadaverous nuisances from the face of the 



^^^^^^' I am, etc. 



* Hasselquist, in his Travels to the Levant, observes that the 

 dogs and vultures at Grand Cairo maintain such a friendly 

 intercourse as to bring up their young together in the same place. 



^ The Chinese word for a dog to an European ear sounds like 



