THE VERTBAGAL GROUP. 719 



ters of a lap-dog. Further, by calling forth, by breeding and 

 selection of parents, the conformation required for speed, 

 we modify in a corresponding degree his faculties, as his 

 strength, his courage, and his sense of animal odours. The 

 greyhounds of different countries, therefore, though conform- 

 ing to the type of the group, vary, in their physical and 

 psychical characters, with place, climate, the habitudes to 

 which they are inured, and the degree of culture bestowed 

 upon them. 



In the British Islands, the Greyhounds were formerly of 

 greater size and muscular power than they have now be- 

 come. Although employed in the pursuit of the hare, the 

 fox, and the roe, their appropriate occupation was the chase 

 of the stag, the fallow-deer, and even the boar and the wolf, 

 until the latter were extirpated. They were employed along 

 with hounds, the proper function of the hounds being to find 

 the game and pursue it by the track, while that of the grey- 

 hounds was to run it down. The coursing of the larger deer 

 by greyhounds continued to be a favourite pastime until the 

 reigns of Elizabeth and James I., when the progress of popu- 

 lation, the destruction of the forests, and, above all, the use 

 of fire-arms, changed the current of this class of sports. The 

 hounds were now employed alone and in large packs, and the 

 greyhounds were used only in the chase of the hare and the 

 fox ; and ever since this period the coursing of the hare has 

 been eagerly followed as a popular sport, and a race of grey- 

 hounds has been formed fitted beyond any other for this kind 

 of chase. But in Scotland, the coursing of the stag and the 

 employment of the larger greyhounds continued for a much 

 longer time. These larger greyhounds were numerous in 

 all the Highlands of Scotland until after the middle of last 

 century, but rapidly diminished in numbers with the multi- 

 plication of sheep, the use of fire-arms, and the change in the 

 habits of the Celtic gentry. They are now to be found only 

 in small numbers, sometimes crossed with other races, as the 

 Pyrenean and German wolf-dogs, or, when pure, preserved 



