game. But, when we came to offer the bones of 

 partridges to the two Chinese dogs, they devoured 

 them with much greediness, and licked the platter 

 clean. 



No sporting dog will flush woodcocks till inured 

 to the scent and trained to the sport, which they 

 then pursue with vehemence and transport ; but 

 then they will not touch their bones, but turn from 

 them with abhorrence, even when they are hungry. 



Now, that dogs should not be fond of the bones 

 of such birds as they are not disposed to hunt is no 

 wonder; but why they reject, and do not care to 

 eat their natural game, is not so easily accounted 

 for, since the end of hunting seems to be, that the 

 chase pursued should be eaten. Dogs again will 

 not devour the more rancid water-fowls, nor indeed 

 the bones of any wild fowl ; nor will they touch the 

 fcetid bodies of birds that feed on offal and garbage : 

 and indeed there may be somewhat of providential 

 instinct in this circumstance of dislike ; for vultures,* 

 and kites, and ravens, and crows, &c. were intended 

 to be messmates with dogs over their carrion ; and 

 seem to be appointed by Nature as fellow-scaven- 

 gers to remove all cadaverous nuisances from the 

 face of the earth. 

 Selborne. 



* Hasselquist, in his " Travels to the Levant," observes that the dogs 

 and vultures at Grand Cairo maintain such a friendly intercourse as to 

 bring up their young together in the same place. 



169 



