THE BENGAL HARRIER OR LEOPARD HOUND. 127 



THE DALMATIAN, OR COACH DOG. 



THE use to which this beautiful and shewy breed is applied, being so universally 

 known both in Town and Country, needs a bare mention : how long- it has been 

 the fashion to keep these dogs, as attendants of the Coach Horse Stable, and as 

 precursors to the Carriage, as if to clear the way and announce its approach, does 

 not appear in our common books of reference on the subject ; but the practice may 

 probably be a century or two old, and was doubtless derived from Continental 

 usage. The specimen here given, we believe, to be the correct figure of a thorough 

 bred Dalmatian Dog, and very particularly, as to the point of size ; a circumstance 

 to which we advert for the information of readers curious in the breed, which, ac- 

 cording to standing custom, has been debased by a variety of spurious mixtures. 

 This dog has been formerly named the Bengal Harrier, on what ground does not 

 appear, unless the suppositions one of his origination in a cross between the Leopard 

 of India, and the hound bitch of that Country. The Leopard figure and spotted 

 skin of the Dog, are certainly no bad indications of such origin, and did we yet 

 want a new appellation for him, that of the LEOPARD HOUND, would not be in- 

 appropriate. However he may have originated, he appears first to have been 

 noticed in Dalmatia, a province of European Turkey, thence to have spread 

 through Italy and the Southern parts, over most of the Continent of Europe, 

 being generally esteemed a hound or hunting dog, notwithstanding his very 

 universal different destination. 



This so usual appendage of the Coach Establishment, seems to be one of the most 

 quiet and inoffensive of the canine species, being at the same time, perhaps, en- 

 dowed with the least share of sensibility to human caresses of any other kind of 

 dog. The whole pleasure of his existence, from early habit no doubt, seems con- 

 centrated in his Coach and Horses, and is most feelingly expressed at the set off, 

 when he gambols about, jumping up to the heads of the horses, and expresses the 

 liveliest satisfaction. It is at this time chiefly, he gives tongue, being generally 

 silent or barking very seldom, although it may be presumed he would give an alarm 

 were the stables attempted by robbers. We have heard it observed that there is a 

 kind of quietism or wow chalance in the nature of these dogs, which constitute them 

 the true Bond-street loungers of dogs, the real puppies of unobserving, unfeeling, 

 and unnoticing fashion, but in this we conceive justice is hardly done to the natural 

 puppy, who in feeling and good-nature may lay claim to the advantage. 



The Dalmatian having the form and nose of a hound, and in fact being deemed 

 such, it is strange indeed, if his qualities in that way have never been tried in this 



