26 NATURAL HISTORY OF THE DOG. 



in his varieties of rough Scotch terrier, black and tan terrier, 

 bull- terrier, with endless mixed breeds between these varieties. 



Var. H — The Pointer, Can. avicularis, Lin. — As a sub-variety, 

 the text of Cuvier has a Dalmatian pointer, hraque de Bengaly 

 Buffon. I doubt the propriety of this enumeration, but I do it 

 with diffidence, from the weight of the authority. I am not 

 aware that any sporting dog, of the markings of the Dalmatian 

 which follows our carriages, is used in India. It is true there 

 is a small variety of pointer, spotted, brindled, or pied in the 

 colours of the Dalmatian ; but I do not know whether that has 

 ever reached India ; still less likely is it to be used as a sporting 

 dog. 



Var. I — Turnspit, Can. f am, vertagus, Lin. 



Var. K — Shepherd's dog, Can, fam. domesticus, Lin. ; Le chien 

 de BergeVy BufF.i^ 



'® Notwithstanding the great variations in size met with in the pasture or 

 shepherd's dog, in different countries of the globe (for he is probably the most 

 extensively diffused of the race), yet he every where preserves some personal 

 characteristics, which mark his adherence to the original type in a greater 

 degree than in any other breed over which man has so arbitrarily exercised his 

 dominion. One of these is, his quantity of covering, which is invariably 

 great, particularly about the neck. In temperate climates his coat is long and 

 shaggy ; in cold ones it is coarse, and crisped or waved in minute curls ; in 

 arid regions his hair is still long and shaggy, but it is fine. In Britain it is 

 remarkable that we have resemblances of all these varieties, as witnessed in the 

 large drovers' dogs which attend the beast markets ; the true shepherd's dog of 

 South Britain, and the sagacious colly of North Britain. The ears are never 

 entirely pendant in any of the race ; but in the British varieties, and many 

 others also, are half erected, or half pricked, as it is called. The colour is 

 also very generally grey, more or less dark. The natural tail of the British 

 breeds is bushy, somewhat pendant, and recurved, such as is seen in the 

 colly; but in England a custom has so long prevailed of cutting off the stern, 

 that many of these dogs are now actually born with less than half a tail; which 

 serves to shew how even the bony structure also, in other instances the most 

 permanent of the whole, bends to circumstances arbitrarily imposed, and con- 

 tinued with regularity. The visage of the shepherd's dog is more or less 

 pointed ; in the colly it is much so ; but in the large drover's dog of South 

 Britain it is much less : this latter dog is remarkable for seldom trotting or 



