736 THE 1}OG. 



IV. THE INDAGATOR GROUP.* 



I. THE TRUE HOUND. There are Canidse, it has been 

 seen, in the state of nature, which pursue their prey in packs, 

 and use the voice in concert, as the Wild Hound of Nepaul, 

 the Dog of Beloochistan, the Jackal, and the Hunting Canidse 

 proper to Africa. It is from this class that we must sup- 

 pose the various races possessing the same faculty in the 

 domesticated state to have been directly or indirectly de- 

 rived. But the hunting dogs of different countries have been 

 so mixed in blood with one another and with other races, 

 that it is now impossible to refer any given race to its source ; 

 and all that we can safely infer, in the state of our know- 

 ledge, is, that the domesticated dogs, having the property of 

 hunting their prey by the scent and in concert, must have 

 derived this property from canidse endowed with the same 

 faculty in the natural state. Of the wild of the species, the 

 Dogs of Nepaul and Beloochistan the nearest resemble the 

 Hounds, so called. But we cannot with any assurance 

 assert that they are the sole progenitors of all hunting dogs, 

 any more than we can maintain that all dogs are derived 

 from the common wolf. 



The ancients, in their different Cynegetica, give us an 

 ample enumeration of the various kinds of hounds employed 

 by them in the chase, sometimes distinguishing them by 

 their qualities, and sometimes by the places or countries 

 in which the most eminent breeds were produced. Thus, 

 they speak of the Spartan, the Cretan, the Locrian, and many 

 more, which probably resembled the Stag-hounds of another 

 age, the Metagon, or Mute -hound, the Petronius, which 



* So named from indagare, to search in the manner of a hound. It cor- 

 responds with the Canes nare sagac.es of the Roman writers, according to their 

 threefold division ; 



" illae gravioribus aptae 



Morsibus ; hae pedibus celeres ; hae nare sagaces." 



