DOGS. 303 



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 in- 

 deed 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 providential instinct in this circumstance of 

 dislike ; for vultures l , and kites, and ravens, 

 and crows, &c., were intended to be messmates 

 with dogs 2 over their carrion ; and seem to be 

 appointed by Nature as fellow- scavengers, to re- 

 move all cadaverous nuisances from the face of 

 the earth 3 . 



LIX. 



THE fossil wood buried in the bogs of Wolmer 

 Forest, is not yet all exhausted; for the peat- 

 cutters now and then stumble upon a log. I have 

 just seen a piece which was sent by a labourer of 

 Oakhanger to a carpenter of this village ; this was 

 the but-end of a small oak, about five feet long, 

 and about five inches in diameter. It had appa- 

 rently been severed from the ground by an axe, was 



1 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. 



2 The Chinese word for a dog, to an European ear, sounds 

 like quihloh. 



3 See some very interesting observations, on the natural 

 history and origin of our domestic race of dogs, in the fifth 

 number of the Journal of Agriculture, by Mr. J. Wilson. The 

 origin of all our domestic breeds is there traced to the wolf 

 and jackal; allowing, of course, the native dogs of Africa and 

 America, with the New Holland Dingo, to be distinct species. 

 W. J. 



