148 PUGS DESCRIBED. 



of hearing in an erect attitude : his are the ears of fear and distrust pug's the 

 ears of confidence and security. 



According to the different construction of the eye and the ear, and in conformity 

 to the same economy of nature, which wastes nothing or does nothing in vain, the 

 sense of smelling lias been differently dispensed. The fox, by the keenness of his 

 olfactory nerves, supplies the difficulty of seeing an object, but what is before him. 

 The prominent orbs of the pug's eyes, starting out of their sockets, encompass so 

 wide an horizon, that a great exquisiteness of smelling would be of little importance 

 or use to him. Consequently bull dogs and pugs are not fit for sports, which 

 depend on the scent, and they leave the diversion of the chase to the long-nosed 

 family of hounds and terriers, which in this point bear a great analogy to the fox. 



A curious singularity attending this species of dog, is the jet blackness of the 

 muzzle, which peculiarity procured them the appellation of Carlinsin France, from 

 a famous Harlequin of that name, who performed for many years, on the Parisian 

 Stages, about the middle of the last century ; previously to which epoch, they 

 were generally called doguins, small bull dogs, and roquets, which names they still 

 retain in some parts of France. But this sable livery of their pugships is not of 

 long duration it is merely an ornament of youth, and fades off into a grey silvery 

 hue, when the animal counts two years from the age of puberty : it is also remark- 

 able that every one of this family, has one or two, and sometimes more, warts, 

 bristling with long black hairs on each side of the face to what purpose, to what 

 use ? Here ends, in a blank, the ingenuity and judgment of man : he only knows, 

 or ought to know, that Nature had her meaning in the most trifling part of her 

 works. These bristles indeed may be smellers, a sort of conductors for the mias- 

 matic emanators of bodies, and placed there to assist the imperfect state of the 

 olfactory organs, as in the feline kind." 



This Gentleman, proprietor of the Bitch Fan, to the head of which, in the Sport- 

 ing Magazine, we have referred, deduces the origin of the word pug from the 

 latin pugnus, a fist ; certainly a probable derivation, as relative to the smallness of 

 the pet pug dog : adding, if the clenched fist, with the thumb outward, be placed 

 in profile, between a lighted candle and the wall, the shadow will give an 

 excellent representation of a pug's head. This we have just now experimented. 



The Pug has been stigmatized, as possessing neither the powers of attraction, 

 nor any kind of usefulness* applicable (it is averred) to no sport, appropriate to 

 no useful purpose, susceptible of no predominant passion even the last in the 

 whole catalogue of the canine species.' In this sentiment we can by no means 

 concur, without considerable reserve. With respect to powers of attraction, we 

 are very ready to acknowledge the superiority of the Spaniel comforter, indeed of 

 the whole race of Spaniels ; but on the score of usefulness, we should certainly 

 place the pug many degrees above the mongrel varieties of curs which infest 



