34 



THE BULL-DOG. 



attacking it in front. A boar has been known to turn with such terrible effect upon a 

 pack containing fifty Dogs, that only ten escaped scathless, and six or seven were killed 

 on the spot. 



Great tact is required on the part of the hound in getting into a proper position, so as 

 to make his onset without exposing himself to the retaliating sweeps of the foam-flecked 

 tusks, and at the same time to act in concert with his companions, so as to keep the 

 animal busily engaged with their reiterated attacks, while their master delivers the death- 

 blow with a spear or rifle-bullet. 



As we have no longer any wild boars ranging at will through the few forests which 

 the advance of agriculture has suffered to remain as relics of a past age, the Boarhound is 

 never seen in this country except as an object for the curious to gaze upon, or imported 

 into this island through the caprice of some Dog-loving individual. But in many parts of 

 Germany it is still employed in its legitimate avocation of chasing the wild boar, and is 

 used in Denmark and Norway for the pursuit of that noble animal the elk. The latter 

 creature is so large, so fleet, and so vigorous, that it would easily outrun or outfight any 

 Dog less swift or less powerful than the Boarhound. 



In the fur of the Boarhound the color of the mastiff generally predominates, the 

 coat being usually brown or brindled uniformly over the body and limbs, but in some 

 animals the color is rather more varied, with large brown patches upon a slate-colored 

 ground. The limbs are long and exceedingly powerful, and the head possesses the square 

 muzzle of the mastiff, together with the sharp and somewhat pert air of the terrier. It 

 is a very large animal, measuring from thirty to thirty-two inches in height at the 

 shoulder. 



The BULL-DOG is said, by all those who have had an opportunity of judging its 

 capabilities, to be, with the exception of the game-cock, the most courageous animal in 

 the world. 



Its extraordinary courage is so well known as to have passed into a proverb, and to 

 have so excited the admiration of the British nation that we have been pleased to sym- 

 bolize our peculiar tenacity of purpose under the emblem of this small but most deter- 

 mined animal. In height the Bull-dog is but insignificant, but in strength and courage 

 there is no Dog that can match him. Indeed, there is hardly any breed of sporting Dog 

 which does not owe its high courage to an infusion of the Bull-dog blood ; and it is 

 chiefly for this purpose that the pure breed is continued. 



We have long ago abolished those cruel and cowardly combats between the bull and 

 the Dog which were a disgrace to our country even in the earlier part of the present 

 century, and of which a few " bull-rings " still-remaining in the ground are the sole relics. 

 In these contests the Dog was trained to fly at the head of the bull, and to seize him by 

 the muzzle as he stooped his head for the purpose of tossing his antagonists into the air. 

 When he had once made good his hold it was almost impossible for the bull to shake 

 off his pertinacious foe, who clung firmly to his antagonist, and suffered himself to be 

 swung about as the bull might choose. 



There seems, indeed, to be no animal which the Bull-dog will not attack without the 

 least hesitation. The instinct of fight is strong within him, and manifests itself actively 

 in the countenance and the entire formation of this creature. 



It is generally assumed that the Bull-dog must be a very dull and brutish animal, 

 because almost every specimen which has come before the notice of the public has held 

 such a character. For this unpleasant disposition a celebrated writer and zoologist at- 

 tempts to account by observing that the brain of the Bull-dog is smaller in proportion to 

 its body than that of any other Dog, and that therefore the animal must needs be of small 

 sagacity. But " Stonehenge " well remarks, that although the Bull-dog's brain appears 

 to the eye to be very small when compared with the body, the alleged discrepancy is 

 only caused by the deceptive appearance of the skull. It is true that the brain ap- 

 pears to be small when compared with the heavy bony processes and ridges that serve 

 to support the muscles of the head and neck, but if the brain be weighed against the 

 remainder of the body, it will be found rather to exceed the average than to be 

 below it. 



