NATURAL HISTORY O* THE DOG. 57 



from a deficiency of speed, which he does not make up for in 

 strength or endurance. 



THE GREEK GREYHOUND 



Is not unlike the Lurcher ; but its hair, :hough ong, is 

 soft and not wiry. 



THE ARABIAN GREYHOUND. 



This dog is called by some naturalists the Bedouin grey- 

 hound, and by others the greyhound of Akaba. He is large 

 and fierce ; is furnished with a short coat, save on the tail, 

 which is very bushy ; his ears stand perfectly erect ; color 

 usually bluish-gray, but often brown, and not unfrequently 

 white, with yellow cloudings. This dog bears a close re- 

 semblance to the wild dog of Egypt, named by Colonel 

 Smith, Thous Anthus ; and is the same to be frequently found 

 figured on various Egyptian monuments. 



Some naturalists have asserted the Arabian greyhound to 

 be the primitive dog the original stock whence the whole 

 canine family sprung. That a greyhound was the primitive 

 dog, I have no doubt ; but it must have been a pure one, 

 which that of Arabia evidently is not. 



CHAPTER V. 



THE GREYHOUNDS. 



SUBDIVISION B. 



THE SMOOTH GREYHOUNDS THE COMMON BRITISH GREYHOUND. 



THE common greyhound is the most elegantly formed, 

 and most graceful of the canine race, and surpasses, also, all 

 his brethren in speed. He is evidently, however, a factitious 

 dog, produced by care, and, perhaps, crossing, from his rough 

 original. 



In height, the greyhound stands from twenty-six to twenty- 

 eight inches at the shoulder, and the female does not present 

 that very striking disparity of size, so remarkable in the 

 deerhound. This fact alone is sufficient to warrant the sup- 

 position, that the smooth greyhound owes something to the 



