122 THE SHOOTER'S GUIDE. 



However, I am of opinion, that if a game dog be 

 kept merely as a guard to the house or premises, he 

 we uld, according to the spirit of the act, be liable 

 only to pay as such, that is, seven shillings ; and, if I 

 am not mistaken, it has been legally so decided. 



The duty does not extend to dogs not six months 

 old ; the proof of which to lie with the owner, on an 

 appeal to the commissioners. 



Persons compounding for their hounds to be 

 charged thirty-four pounds. 



It might perhaps, with some degree of propriety, 

 be asserted, that the dog tax, all things considered^ 

 was just and necessary; it is sufficiently heavy cer- 

 tainly; yet the payment of no part of the public re- 

 venue is more evaded : and, I am persuaded, that 

 not more than half the dogs which come within the 

 meaning of the act are paid for by the owners. 



THE BIRD. 



THE particulars most important in the compara- 

 tive anatomy of birds are these : The heart is fur- 

 nished with two cavities, and in the language of ana- 

 tomists is bilocular, and the general course of the cir- 

 culation is carried on as in quadrupeds. The lungs 

 are very large, affixed to the back part of the cavity 

 of the breast, and have several external orifices, by 

 which the air they contain is, at pleasure, cpminuni- 



