40 HUNTING DIRECTORY. 



The Fox-hound. 



large lurcher or something of the greyhound kind, was 

 employed in his production. It will be more difficult to 

 account for the immediate origin of the southern-hound, 

 unless, indeed, we suppose, that accident produced a 

 few Talbots of a smaller kind, and hence they were pro- 

 pagated. The same sort of reasoning may be applied 

 to the beagle, while the fox-hound of the present day is 

 evidently a mixture of the whole ; and as the crosses for 

 the production of this animal have been directed by the 

 different opinions of a number of individuals, so we may 

 perceive the reason of that great variety in these animals 

 which cannot have escaped the notice even of the most 

 indifferent observer. Yet, generally speaking, sufficient 

 reflection has not been exerted in the production of the 

 fox-hound — speed has been the principal object of con- 

 sideration, and on this account fox-hounds have been 

 produced with such inferior olfactory organs, that they 

 were utterly incapable of pursuing the chase unless the 

 atmosphere was as favourable to scent as possible. 



It became the fashion also to consider a small head in 

 the fox-hound as indispensable to the beauty of his 

 appearance, which is utterly incompatible with exquisite 

 sense of smell. — It is a very well-known fact, that the 

 sense of smell varies very much in dogs ; or, to speak as 

 a sportsman, some of them possess better noses than 

 others. In dogs with broad heads, the os aethmoides, 

 or sive bone, is much larger than in narrow headed dogs ; 

 the laminae cribrose, or the sive itself, is therefore more 

 capacious, and contams more openings ; so that the olfac- 

 tory nerves, which pass through it, are more numerous, 

 and are divided more minutely, and thus that exquisite 



