730 THE DOG. 



holds fast, and will endure mutilation rather than quit his 

 hold. He has little power of speed, and does not join other 

 dogs, in the manner of the hound, in pursuit of game. 



From the singular temperament of this dog, some natu- 

 ralists have conceived it probable that he has been produced 

 by a mixture of the blood of the Hyaena with that of the 

 common dogs. This may have been, although the hypothesis 

 appears to be a violent one ; and we may more naturally 

 seek for the origin of the Bull-dog in the adaptation of his 

 form and habits to the services required of him. Dogs of 

 the Mastiff kind, we know from our early writers, were em- 

 ployed in these Islands, in remote times, for the destruction 

 of the Boars, which were then numerous, and of the Wild 

 Oxen, which abounded in the woods of the country until the 

 fourteenth century. If any kind of dogs were devoted espe- 

 cially to the destruction of the Wild Cattle, it would be 

 merely in accordance with what we know to take place in 

 analogous cases, that the animal would become suited to the 

 employment, in habits, temperament, and form. Now the 

 Bull-dog is fitted, beyond any other dog, for the attack of 

 the Bull. While all the dogs of the Lyciscan group imitate 

 the wolf in attacking this animal behind, the Bull-dog at 

 once assaults him in front, and endeavours to seize him by 

 the muzzle, which is the most tender part, and, held by 

 which, the bull becomes almost helpless. So perfectly is 

 this method of attack the habit of this race of dogs, that even 

 a whelp of a few months old adopts it, and manifests the ut- 

 most antipathy to a bull, though he may never before have 

 seen one. Further, the bull himself, when he attacks an 

 animal, lowers his head that he may use his horns with 

 effect. The Bull-dog, that he may meet this method of at- 

 tack, runs close to the ground, and his fore-limbs are bent 

 outwards, which brings his body nearer to the earth than in 

 the case of any other of the larger dogs. Were a tall dog to 

 attack a bull in front, he could scarcely escape being gored, 

 Further, the lower jaw of the Bull-dog projects beyond the 



