THE TONGUE OF HOUNDS. 351 



small white specks on a dark ground, but he is 

 rarely what is called " mottled"' (motley) ; and, we 

 believe, what is known by " a blue mottled hound" 

 is not to be found among fox-hounds of the present 

 day, that variety of colour being peculiar to harriers 

 and beagles. There was for many years a pack of 

 ''blue mottled"' harriers kept near Croydon, in 

 Surrey. 



It is asserted, that the original colour of the 

 English fox-hound was fallow, or pale yellow 

 (Shakspeare speaks of a fallow greyhound?) ; and we 

 are inclined to this opinion from its being spoken 

 of in several old works upon hunting, as the '' best 

 colour for hounds that hunt the hart or roe ; "" and 

 there can be no doubt of our fox-hounds being: ori- 

 ginally descended from that breed of dog, be it 

 what it may. As we know that a recurrence to 

 original colour frequently takes place in animals 

 and birds, after its disappearance throughout seve- 

 ral generations, this may probably account for the 

 various pied hounds we see in kennels, the produce 

 of hounds of distinct colours, perhaps merely black 

 and white, and often of those nearly black. More- 

 over, at Ashdown Park, in Berkshire, an old seat 

 of the Craven family, there is a picture of a pack 

 of fox-hounds, above a hundred years old, in which 

 every hound is either fallow coloured or red. 



The Tongue, or Cry of Hounds. — During the 

 early stages of mental progress, the ear is of more 

 importance to man than the eye. Indeed, at all 

 times sounds, by association, become the signs of 



